RAMU BEAR is another older bear, a male, who was received in the facility on 29.01.03. Then, he was 12 years old, so he is 15 years old now. He weighed 82 kg when we got him but is 147 kg now. Ramu adores his keepers and eats everything given to him: milk and wheat porridge, multigrain rotis, eggs, fruits and honey. He has no favourite fruits or foods, everything excites him and his old age is a happy time of many meals. Ramu is the friendliest of bears to humans but he ignores all the other bears in his enclosure. His only friend is Damru; when Damru cannot find Shera to snuggle up to, it is Ramu he can play with and wrestle which makes for a comic scene because Damru is very small in size, smaller even than our females (everyone thinks he is a cub, but he is a five year old adult who is just...small!!!) Ramu has a hobby- patrolling his enclosure! Going for a long walk he passes Lalloo on his platform, Shera near his den entrance, other bears under trees and at the large pond where they often go to look for ants. This walk takes the whole morning and then he enters his den for his afternoon nap which he takes very seriously. Nothing disturbs him, and we are happy that Ramu can now nap, if that is what he wants, in the privacy of his den; he no longer has to walk the dirty, polluted streets of towns and cities at the end of a rope for villagers and tourists, being beaten and kept without food or water, earning for his master endlessly. Ramu, unlike everyone else, doesn't try to climb trees or platforms. Ramu has never done all this in his lost childhood and he is now unwilling to learn. Moreover he has always suffered from arthritis and his Qalandar master kept him on a very poor diet so that his joints were swollen and painful when he came to us. Extensive vitamin and calcium therapy, good food and rest have helped him a little but Ramu still avoids the pond and wrestling with other big bears. After his nap as promptly as if someone woke him up he again resumes an evening stroll and after a shorter walk enters his den and awaits his evening meal. Like all our bears he is de-wormed regularly and protected against leptospirosis and rabies. And like all our older bears he is patient and his eyes are reflections of the torture he has undergone in the past.