In search of the Denmo The Himalayan Brown Bear

In search of the Denmo

The Himalayan Brown Bear

One of the many breath taking views of the Zanskar Valley

I must have been in the eighth grade. I remember watching a documentary on Animal planet on Grizzly Bears and it was during this time my fascination towards these stunning beasts started building up. I relished on the idea of being a wildlife warden or a photographer and to walk the same land as these wild bears. Years passed along and my dream of seeing and documenting a wild Brown Bear only grew moss over time.

Indian Sloth Bear with Cubs from Central India

Though I have photographed many Indian sloth bears in the wild, the idea of seeing a Himalayan Brown Bear was always an extremely tempting desire. One fine day me and my friend Kaustubh from work were exploring the idea of exploring The Zanskar valley in Ladakh as a prospective expedition for wildlife photographer who would wish to photograph the wildlife of this rugged yet spectacular landscape. If not the Grizzlies from North America started fancying the chance of accomplishing my long last dream of seeing the most elusive species of Brown Bear in the world – The Himalayan Brown Bear.

I had just finished off guiding a summer camp for 10 participants in Ladakh and then hooked up with a local friend Gyalstan to ensue my journey to Zanskar valley with the sole aim to photograph or at least see a Himalayan Brown Bear. The road to Zanskar starts from Kargil and gets pretty harsh and rugged till the last village Padum. I had absolutely no pre-plans whatsoever and decided to play it as it comes.

Dran Drung Glacier enroute Pensi La Pass

Last Bridge over the Zanskar river that connects to the last village of Padum in the valley

We reached Rangdum only at midnight where we stayed for the night in the only hotel in the region – La Himalaya. We packed our breakfast and hurried on to make sure we do not miss out on the wee morning hours a time preferred by the bears as the start retreating to their caves to beat the day time heat. The first mammal to greet us was a Himalayan Marmot and there was an army of them. We made a pit stops in intervals to scan the mountains and the vast landscape for any Himalayan Brown Bears but nothing.

The Himalayan Marmot keeping a watch over its territory

We were now crossing the highest pass The Pensi La in the Zaskar valley and were told by locals that this area is a hotspot for smaller mammals like the HImalayan Pika and the mountain weasel. Just as we stopped for a break to admire the stunning Dran Drung Glacier, I spotted some movement on the side of the road and followed it while lugging my huge lens. Suddenly a tiny head popped up from the grass and I got my first picture of a Himalayan Pika.

The Himalayan Pika - Although resembling a mouse, Pikas are closest to the Hare or Rabbit family

We settled in a small village called Akshoo for Lunch as it started raining. Here we gathered as lot of information on the sightings and the movements of the bear and that helped us plan the next few days. We spent the next few days talking to villagers and trekking miles of the mountain ranges trying get a glimpse of the ‘Denmo’ as the Ladakhi’s call it. It was a tough couple of weeks. We knew we had to change our tactics.

Made friends with this cutie in the village of Akshoo. Such a stress buster...

I did realize that there was a pronounced man-animal conflict ensuing between the small villages in the valley and the Bears. The bears are omnivorous in nature and they need to use all the opportunity they get to feed during the summer months that help them build up fat and energy to sustain the long winter months of hibernation. In the night these bears comedown to the villages and ruthlessly raid the houses and the granaries in their search for food and sometimes this leads to human casualties. I met a man who's brother was dragged from his house in the dead of the night and his half eaten body found a few meters away in the mountains next morning. We came across many footprints and Bear scat during are long laborious treks. The evidence was all there but over a week into the expedition and no sight of the bear.

Few shots of the many futile treks we embarked up in search of the Denmo

It was the last day of my expedition as I had to drive back to Leh to take a fight to Mumbai and I had lost all hope but that night had a surprise in store for me. Last few days I was holed up in nunnery in a village in the deep interiors of the Zanskar valley. The head nun had informed us that there is a mother bear and a cub that had raided a granary very close to the monastery we were staying in and suggested we spend the night in the car with torches and keep our ears ope. The dogs in the village take the bears to be their mortal enemy and they would surely breakout in a cacophony of barks if they sensed a bear around. And so we waited….

Not a sound till about 4 am and me and Gaylston went off to sleep keeping the windows down bearing the cold hoping to be woken up by the barking dogs. I woke up to take piss at about 5 AM and it was pitch dark outside. By then I knew my dream of seeing a Himalayan Brown Bear had broken. But nothing in life can be predicted and as the Gods would have it magic happened. I wore my jacket and got my torch to get out to answer the nature’s call. It was still dark and while I moved my torch to see if it was safe for me to get out I so two eyes shining, gazing straight at me. Yoooo Hoooooo! Finally, a Himalayan Brown Bear. What was more magical was that this one was about a year-old cub that had raided a granary and was munching on the raw rice from one of the rice bags.

This was the moment.

This was magical.

Denmo Or The Himalayan Brown Bear as seen from the car on the last day of the expedition.

I quickly drew my camera and took some very blurry picture due to the excitement. While I woke up Gyalston I also managed to get the right settings on my camera as the only source of light was from the torch hoping the bear cub wouldn’t get spooked and run away. Hey stayed for a bit, till I got some decent shots and a small video. We tried following it for some time but it vanished in the thick of the darkness.

There are very few photo records of the Himalayan Brown Bear from Zanskar and I was extremely lucky to have documented and captured and image of a Bear cub from this place. Humans are greedy by nature and I am now planning to do a winter trip to try and get some images of this lovely bears roaming about freely in a paradise called Zanskar covered in a thick blanket of snow. Stay tuned…

My dream had come true.

Video link of the bear cub feeding on the rice - https://youtu.be/JO8NJ_GVDPk