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Monday, July 5, 2010

Now, sloth bear goes on rampage, injures five

CHANDRAPUR: Incidents of man-animal conflict continue to take place in the district. On Saturday, a blind tigress that had strayed close to villages along the border of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and injured three people was captured after two days of efforts.

Just a day later, a sloth bear went berserk and mauled five people at a small settlement along Adegaon-Masele road on Sunday morning. Like the tiger incident, the situation turned tense and heavy police force was rushed to the area to control the mob.

Around 40 families of farmers and farm labourers live in a settlement located some distance away from Adegaon village in Chimur tehsil. A bear strayed into this settlement around 5 am and attacked one Indira Nannaware, who was up early for her morning chores. Neighbours and family members of Indira woke up on hearing her cries.

However, the bear directed its fury at the rescuers and mauled three others --Annaji Nannaware, Nandkishor Nannaware and Bhauji Nannaware – before fleeing the spot. Later, all the four injured were admitted at Chimur rural hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, the bear escaped to a nearby zudpi jungle and took shelter in the shrubs near Adegaon. A group of people soon tracked the beast down and tried to capture it with the help of a net made of ropes.

However, the beast foiled their attempt and mauled one Murlidhar Gajbhiye. He too was taken to Chimur rural hospital for treatment. Forest officials from Chimur and Talodhi range also reached the spot. However, the villagers were enraged due to the delay of forest officials in reaching the spot. Efforts were on by the forest department staffers to capture the bear with the help of net till late in the evening, but the beast kept eluding the pursuers.

aThe heavy mob of over two hundred villagers kept following the foresters and bears in Zudpi jungle during the exercise. In a couple of instances, the annoyed bear charged at the crowd. In the panic that ensued, one Ankush Sonwane, 19, fell down and broke his leg. RFO, Chimur range, BS Padve confirmed the incident and said that the forest department staffers are trying hard to net the bear. “The place falls under Talodhi forest range. However being close a team of Chimur range too has come to assist the Talodhi foresters. We have brought a cage to the spot, so that after bear was captured in the net she could be caged safely,” said Padve.

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