Wild bear kills eight in Koraput, beaten to death

[Mrudul Godbole]

Wild bear kills eight in Koraput, beaten to death
Satyanarayan Pattnaik & Sandeep Mishra, TNN | May 6, 2013, 06.50 AM IST

KORAPUT/BHUBANESWAR: A wild bear killed eight people, including a couple, and injured five others before being beaten to death by an angry mob at Andramuda forest in Kotpad area of Koraput district, official sources said on Sunday.

On Saturday, the female bear mauled three persons, including a woman, and injured one, when they entered the jungle to collect minor forest produce. It continued its attacking spree on Sunday, killing five more, including a woman, and injuring another four. Officials attributed the high casualty to 'overcrowding' at the spot.

Forest officials suspect the animal suffered from rabies. "We have rushed a team of animal experts each from Bhubaneswar and Balasore to the area as it is suspected that two more bears are roaming there. If we get hold of them, we will bring them to Bhubaneswar," principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) J D Sharma told TOI.

This was the second incident of a bear attacking humans in the state within a week. On Friday, a mob of around 100 people killed a wild bear and set it afire near Turumunga village in Keonjhar district after it injured a man.

Eyewitnesses said the wild bear, which was moving in Andramuda forest, ventured into the adjoining Girla village around 3 am and swooped down on Laku Mali and his wife Devki while the unsuspecting couple was sleeping outside their house. Shocked by the sudden ferocious attack, the couple couldn't even retaliate and succumbed to injuries on the spot.

Angered by the incident, at around 9 am a group of around 50 villagers armed with sticks and iron rods went to the forest, where the bear was lurking in an underbrush, to scare him away. But the bear attacked the fear-stricken villagers and kept clawing and mauling at them, killing three more, identified as Buruda Majhi, Dhabaleswar Bindhani and Jagadish Pujari. Four others managed to escape from the spot with deep gashes and cut marks. After preliminary treatment at Kotpad they were shifted to Koraput hospital.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The sloth bear is a readily excitable creature. It often sleeps in the bushes and snores. Since the sloth bear sleeps like a log, often people literally put their feet on it, and the startled sloth bear mauls the person(s).

Crowding at the spot to see what is going on can often land up the people in trouble, especially when the animals is a wild sloth bear. People are often known to throw stones, use sticks to corner an animal. If the people were to leave space, then the sloth bear can run away.

Everyday, thousands of people enter into our jungles to collect fruits like aamla, custard apple, honey, tendu leaves etc which results in people coming directly in contact with animals. When we stop our car in the highways to buy fruits, we don't realise that these have been collected from the forests reducing the fruit available to the sloth bears and monkey and deers etc. Conflict is inevitable.

In forest areas where new settlers have set up their houses, conflict is more prevalent as these people are not aware about the ways of the wildlife. Any wild animal either invokes a feeling of fear if it is a carnivore or a large mammal like elephant or greed for meat if it is smaller herbivores like deers etc. Our wilderness areas and wildlife are facing unprecedented challenges.