Save Rano the Himalayan bear from being relocated
The Issue
I have dedicated my entire life to fighting for animal rights, and I cannot bear to see animals abused and used for entertainment in the place I call home. One such soul, Rano, a majestic Himalayan bear, has captivated my heart with her enduring spirit. Rano has suffered unspeakably, spending years languishing in the atrocious conditions of Karachi Zoo. Her life there was nothing short of a nightmare, a place truly akin to hell for animals.
Rano is sleeping right now. Hibernating, or maybe just being a bear the way bears are supposed to be. In a den she built herself, in an environment built around her, at the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board sanctuary. Getting her here was not simple. It took Jude Allen, founder of the I Am Noor Jehan Movement, a man still carrying the grief of losing Noor Jehan the elephant at Karachi Zoo, to take this fight to court refusing to back down.
And this is Rano's story.
She was poached from the wild at seven months old. Taken from the alpine meadows of Deosai National Park, where she would have spent her life foraging through mountain grass with her mother beside her. Instead, she ended up at Karachi Zoo in 2017, inside a Victorian-era cement pit that had last housed another bear who had gone mad in captivity.
Her only companion, an Asiatic black bear, died in 2020. After that, she had nothing.
For years, she paced. Back and forth, on hard ground that wore away at her paws, in a barren cage next to a noisy funfair. The zoo's own committee eventually confirmed she was suffering from severe mental stress. She developed a head wound that was left untreated for so long it became infested with maggots. She is 25 years old, has no functional teeth, and cannot eat the diet a bear of her species needs. That is what eight years at Karachi Zoo did to her.
Can you think about what levels of pain push a living being to that point?
We are a generation that talks about mental health, that understands what happens when the pressure on a human being becomes unbearable. But there was an animal who does not even have a concept of mental health, pushed to a psychological breakdown and a wound that was left untreated. All of that, bearing and fighting alone under the care of humans who were supposed to look after her.
Jude went to court. Alone. Against a system that had been comfortable with all of this for decades. He won. On November 5, 2025, Rano was flown to IWMB by Pakistan Air Force C-130, and for the first time in her life, she began to just be a bear. She ate properly. She hibernated. She started living the life that was stolen from her when she was a cub.
On one of those visits, the team told him she was hibernating and should not be disturbed. But somehow, she woke up on her own. Came to the entrance of her den. Looked at him. Went back to sleep. Someone standing beside him said softly:
"آپکی بیٹی آ گئی۔"
Your daughter came out for you.
That moment is what is now being threatened.
There is a proposal to transfer Rano to Gilgit-Baltistan. We are not saying GB is a bad place. We are saying it is not ready for Rano, and the difference is her life. There is no purpose-built sanctuary equipped for an animal with her medical and psychological history. No specialized wildlife veterinarian. No emergency response capacity. At IWMB, she is monitored multiple times every day. In GB, she would be checked on once every few days. She has no functional teeth and requires a carefully managed, specialized diet prepared daily. In GB, the feeding model is community-based with no nutritional oversight.
The snow leopard currently under care in GB is already deteriorating under these same systemic gaps. Rano, at 25 years old, with everything her body has already been through, would not survive them.
After everything it took to get her here, we cannot let that happen.
This is why we are here. Not as separate organizations or causes, but together. For Rano. For Noor Jehan, whose death showed us what happens when people decide to look away. For every stray, every caged animal, every wild creature treated as a trophy or cheap entertainment by people who forgot that animals have lives, emotions, and the right to be what they are. So many of us watched animals suffer and felt helpless.
This petition is proof that we do not have to.
It stops here.
Sign this petition. Share it. Make sure the people making this decision know that the people watching will not stay quiet.
She is finally living like a bear. Let her stay.
We are calling for the proposed transfer to be halted, and for resources to be directed toward expanding Rano's habitat at IWMB where she is safe and cared for. Sign. Share. Make sure this reaches as many people as possible.
275
The Issue
I have dedicated my entire life to fighting for animal rights, and I cannot bear to see animals abused and used for entertainment in the place I call home. One such soul, Rano, a majestic Himalayan bear, has captivated my heart with her enduring spirit. Rano has suffered unspeakably, spending years languishing in the atrocious conditions of Karachi Zoo. Her life there was nothing short of a nightmare, a place truly akin to hell for animals.
Rano is sleeping right now. Hibernating, or maybe just being a bear the way bears are supposed to be. In a den she built herself, in an environment built around her, at the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board sanctuary. Getting her here was not simple. It took Jude Allen, founder of the I Am Noor Jehan Movement, a man still carrying the grief of losing Noor Jehan the elephant at Karachi Zoo, to take this fight to court refusing to back down.
And this is Rano's story.
She was poached from the wild at seven months old. Taken from the alpine meadows of Deosai National Park, where she would have spent her life foraging through mountain grass with her mother beside her. Instead, she ended up at Karachi Zoo in 2017, inside a Victorian-era cement pit that had last housed another bear who had gone mad in captivity.
Her only companion, an Asiatic black bear, died in 2020. After that, she had nothing.
For years, she paced. Back and forth, on hard ground that wore away at her paws, in a barren cage next to a noisy funfair. The zoo's own committee eventually confirmed she was suffering from severe mental stress. She developed a head wound that was left untreated for so long it became infested with maggots. She is 25 years old, has no functional teeth, and cannot eat the diet a bear of her species needs. That is what eight years at Karachi Zoo did to her.
Can you think about what levels of pain push a living being to that point?
We are a generation that talks about mental health, that understands what happens when the pressure on a human being becomes unbearable. But there was an animal who does not even have a concept of mental health, pushed to a psychological breakdown and a wound that was left untreated. All of that, bearing and fighting alone under the care of humans who were supposed to look after her.
Jude went to court. Alone. Against a system that had been comfortable with all of this for decades. He won. On November 5, 2025, Rano was flown to IWMB by Pakistan Air Force C-130, and for the first time in her life, she began to just be a bear. She ate properly. She hibernated. She started living the life that was stolen from her when she was a cub.
On one of those visits, the team told him she was hibernating and should not be disturbed. But somehow, she woke up on her own. Came to the entrance of her den. Looked at him. Went back to sleep. Someone standing beside him said softly:
"آپکی بیٹی آ گئی۔"
Your daughter came out for you.
That moment is what is now being threatened.
There is a proposal to transfer Rano to Gilgit-Baltistan. We are not saying GB is a bad place. We are saying it is not ready for Rano, and the difference is her life. There is no purpose-built sanctuary equipped for an animal with her medical and psychological history. No specialized wildlife veterinarian. No emergency response capacity. At IWMB, she is monitored multiple times every day. In GB, she would be checked on once every few days. She has no functional teeth and requires a carefully managed, specialized diet prepared daily. In GB, the feeding model is community-based with no nutritional oversight.
The snow leopard currently under care in GB is already deteriorating under these same systemic gaps. Rano, at 25 years old, with everything her body has already been through, would not survive them.
After everything it took to get her here, we cannot let that happen.
This is why we are here. Not as separate organizations or causes, but together. For Rano. For Noor Jehan, whose death showed us what happens when people decide to look away. For every stray, every caged animal, every wild creature treated as a trophy or cheap entertainment by people who forgot that animals have lives, emotions, and the right to be what they are. So many of us watched animals suffer and felt helpless.
This petition is proof that we do not have to.
It stops here.
Sign this petition. Share it. Make sure the people making this decision know that the people watching will not stay quiet.
She is finally living like a bear. Let her stay.
We are calling for the proposed transfer to be halted, and for resources to be directed toward expanding Rano's habitat at IWMB where she is safe and cared for. Sign. Share. Make sure this reaches as many people as possible.
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Petition created on August 1, 2026