The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, is preparing the country's first national-level assessment of the population, distribution and range of all four bear species in India, which belong to the family Ursidae. They are the Himalayan brown bear (a subspecies of Ursus arctos), Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus), sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) and sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). The brown bear is Least Concern globally, while the other three are Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The study will map critical habitats and human-bear conflict zones; the older figure of about 20,000 sloth bears covers the whole Indian subcontinent.