With ‘Jhumari’ — a female sloth bear at Nahargarh Biological Park — giving birth to a cub on Sunday, the population of this species has increased by one.

This is the third litter delivered by Jhumari, who is paired with a male bear named ‘Shambhu,’ over the past four years, Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Jagdish Gupta said.

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Both the mother and the newborn cub are healthy, Gupta added.

The birth brings positive news for the desert state, where the population of sloth bears was estimated at over 571 earlier this year.

According to official figures from the Chief Wildlife Warden’s office, at least 571 sloth bears were counted during a census held in May of this year. Of these, 366 bears were observed in protected areas, while 205 were counted in other forested areas.

This census, conducted on May 23, 2024, used the waterhole method in selected protected areas and non-tiger reserve forests, providing generalized and estimated figures for the sloth bear population in the state.