For a reporter, writing about the Romanian bears attacks was a kind of return home – The New York Times

Rukmini Callimachi, the stepdaughter of the anti -communist dissident Mihai Botez and reporter in the real estate department of The New York Times (NYT), had come to Romania to write a report on the traditional architecture in the north of the country, but reoriented to another topic when he noticed that the ancient relationship with the people here.

A census of the population of DNA bears, presented by the authorities in April, showed that in Romania lived between 10,419 and 12,770 bears. Former Minister of the Environment, Mircea Fechet, said following the study that an “optimal” number is, in his opinion, almost three times smaller, respectively 4,000 copies.

In Europe, only Russia has more bears brown than Romania. The American publication writes that they are rooted in our national identity, but the human intrusion on the wild lands and the growth of the bears population in the context of a moratorium introduced on the hunters in 2016 have unbalanced the human relationship.

The data of the National Institute for Forest Research and Development show that, starting in 2016, bears have killed 20 people in Romania, and according to NYT, the attacks are more and more.

“The bear is woven in Romanian mythology

Rukmini Callimachi was born in Romania, and her family fled the communist regime in 1979. However, the NYT reporter spent long enough in the country to understand the bear symbolism.

This summer, when on a service trip to Romania, Callimachi noticed that a source of national pride has also become a problem.

“While I was returning from the distant north of Romania, where I was working on a report on the real estate field and the interest for the traditional architecture there, the return road took us through the bears,” said Rukmini Callimachi.

She says that, talking to a colleague, she realized that the place she had known as a child “had changed”.

“Bears are so many and, unfortunately, used to eat human food, and the threat of bears is so significant that in these areas it is no longer advisable to do hiking or jogging. So, practically, I have changed my direction. I have not finished the first report, I started to work now,” I said.

Rukmini Callimachi believes that “the bear is woven in Romanian mythology”.

“There are still traditional bear dances in villages, where men and women sometimes wear a bear skin and dance. It is a tradition prior to Christianity in Romania, a pagan ritual that, depending on the interpretation, aimed to drive away evil,” she explained.

What did he say about hunters organized by Ceausescu

The reporter also spoke about the “negative” and “sadistic” image of the bears hunters that the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu organizes, who, she says, “anyone who has grown in communist Romania”.

“” I interviewed this trip to the villagers who remember being told to align on the streets that lead to the forest and to applaud his convoy, as he went to hunt the bears. For Romanians that his power over nature mirrored his power over them, ”said the journalist.

Asked why a bears hunting is such a sensitive subject in Romania, Callimachi said that “this animal is one of Romania's treasures.”

“The largest population of brown bears in the European Union is in Romania. Tourists come from all sides to see bears. There are pseudo-flares, where people go up on a mountain passenger with tourist guides, in the same way they would go to Kenya to see the lion.

“My family was terrorized by the Ceausescu regime”

Speaking of her connections with Romania, Rukmini Callimachi said that her family “was terrorized by the Ceausescu regime”.

“My stepfather, Mihai Botez, has become an important dissident and was placed under non-stop supervision for almost a decade. So I have a complicated relationship with my native country, which is partially proud and part. To go back and to write in my mother tongue is a privilege, but I have to write in the country, All these common memories that others and others have.

Photo: Kutizoltan, Dreamstime.com