He stuck in a hot location: Despite the best efforts of Madras Zoo to keep him cool, he succumbed to relentless heat in the city. | Photo Credit: Hindic Archives
Can you believe that polar bears were briefly placed in Madras in the mid -1950s and sixties? In order to mark the centenary of the Madras Zoo, it began as a menagerie in 1855 in Egmore and later moved to the folk park next to the central station, Madras Corporation addressed the Moscow Zoo through the Soviet Embassy in India and asked for a polar bear. The Soviet reaction was fast and generous. After all, as a research article published in the yearbook of the Swedish company Linnaeus Society in 2016, polar bears were used as diplomatic gifts since medieval times.
In October 1955, a polar bear, only seven months, arrived in Madras. This was called Snejhok, Russian for “Small Snow”. According to an article published in Hind 10. October 1955, a polar bear was captured on the ice island of Russia, about two feet tall and Madras arrived Grand Trunk Express from Nový Delhi, along with Glutton (animal Weasel) and half pigeons. The animals were accompanied by Sosnovský, director of the Moscow Zoo, its interpreter and John, a veterinary officer of Madras Corporation.
Kabul
Glutton, named Rosa, was captured in the Ural forest near Sverdlovsk in January 1953 and was placed in Moscow Zoo since March 1955. As the article remarks, the animals arrived in Kabul from the Soviet Union 21. The Russian embassy then referred to the Indian government for help. In response, three seats were removed from the aircraft to create an animal space.
It was not the first time that polar bears planted paws on Indian soil. December 31, 1953, a shipment of exotic animals arrived at the port of Madras aboard the SS Bärenfels from Germany. Among them were three polar bears, allegedly the first of its kind to achieve India in more than thirty years. These bears, every year, were captured by the Norwegian fishermen in the ice wilderness of Spitsbergen in Norway. Their goal was Zoo Mysore. The same shipment also included four Russian brown bears – part of the animal exchange, which saw that Indian monkeys had sent a Russian zoo. Two of these brown bears were supposed to remain in Madras, while the other two were tied to a trivandrum.
Different menu
Although polar bears are natural fish eaters, they had to adapt to another menu that include cooked meat and bread. To help them cope with the Indian weather, Zookeepers regularly sprayed them with water. A special measures have been taken in the zoo to be this visitor. A “polar weather cover” was set up and plans to install air -conditioned chambers were announced to help the bear to adapt to tropical heat. However, it is not clear whether air conditioners have ever been installed. Meanwhile, Snejhok made with shower baths and shady corners. Despite his efforts, the weather was a challenge. Special spread in Hindu 31 October 1955, during the celebrations of the zoo, noted that Snejhok did not like crowds. It was known to get upset when too many visitors gathered around his cover and yelled in protest if someone got too close. He looked every piece of snow resident, stuck in the oven.
And then, only a few years later, there was inevitable. In the summer of 1959 the polar bear died. Despite the best efforts of the zoo to keep it cool, the bear succumbed to the tireless heat Madras. The abscess has developed and the animal did not survive. Corporations again wrote Moscow and asked for another polar bear to capture the sneejhok. While the exact timeline of the second arrival of the polar bear to Madras remains unclear, it is likely that it is the one that the historian and writer of Theodore Baskaran, now 85, remembers in the early 1960s. “The polar bear was unfortunate,” Mr. Baskaran recalled. “There was no sophisticated air conditioning system at that time, so they placed ice blocks in the cover. The poor animal was limited to the cage.”
The biologist and nature conservation Ravi Chellam, 64, also remembers that he saw a polar bear, with some respect, curiosity and concern during his visit to the zoo, when he was about six years old. “Although it was fascinating to see a polar bear, two things hit me, even at that age,” he said. “One was a small cage size that had stone floors and iron bars, like most zoo at the time. The other was as the bear failed on the ice blocks. I have seen pictures of polar bears, perhaps in Hindu, and knew they had a white fur.
Mr. Baskaran noted that the capture of animals from nature is problematic in itself, but maintaining a lonely animal without a companion is even worse. When he remembered the visit of the Shillong Zoo with British scientist Gerald Durrell, he told Durrell, when he saw a lone Loris, noted that it could also be stuffed. While the Madras Zoo was moved to vandalur, there were no other mistakes in obtaining exotic animals that would consider it difficult to acclimatize to the weather of the city.
Published – May 22, 2025 22:06
