Ashiq Hussain
SRINAGAR, Dec 4: A man in Kashmir’s summer capital nearly escaped death after a bear attacked him on Monday evening triggering anger among people.
Javaid Ahmad was badly injured after a bear emerged in the interior areas of Zakoora in the outskirts of Srinagar and repeatedly slapped the young man.
“He seemed totally defaced. There was blood all over his face due to the slashing of cheeks by bear pawns,” said a resident, Mohammad Imran, on Phone.
Chief Wildlife warden of Kashmir M.A Tak said that the bear had climbed a residential house. “The rescue team was immediately dispatched as mob chased the animal with sticks,” he said.
Superintendent of Police (Hazratbal zone), Abdul Qayoom said that bear was rescued by the men from wild life department. “They managed to tranquilize the animal and take it away. However the young man was badly injured,” he said.
On November 24, television screens were ablaze with visuals of villagers trying to torch a bear alive in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district after it had attacked a household in the area. Though the bear managed to escape but the media frenzy over the incident prompted state government to order a probe. Two days later Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Nartarjan asked Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take action against the people who tried to burn the bear in south Kashmir.
While there has been concern over the killing of wild animals entering villages in search of food, not much has been done to prevent the attacks on humans.
Figures from wild life department of Kashmir indicate that the incidents of man-animal conflict have shown an upward trend since the year 1995. Between 1995 to 2009, of the total 643 incidents of man-animal conflict bears and leopards were the main animals involved.
In the south Kashmir belt alone, Wildlife officials informed, 19 people have lost their lives and over 200 have been injured in the past two years. The fatality-data of North Kashmir was not available immediately.
Officials give different reasons to the increasing number of encounters.
“The basic is conversion of paddy land into orchards near forests, orchard owners constructing homes in their lands as nuclear families percolate and a ban on shooting of the animal in early 1980s. With eruption of militancy the hunting of animals stopped completely as people surrendered their hunting guns,” said Intissar Suhail, wildlife warden of Shopian-Pulwama region, said.
The Union Environment Minister on November 26 had announced measures post man-animal encounters like setting up of primary response teams to quickly deal with the incidents .(HT)
(Feedback: [email protected])
