Hyderabad: In an unfortunate incident of man-animal conflict, a 50 year old man was killed by a sloth bear in Gumpanpalle village in Mahbubnagar district. The incident occurred near an agricultural field in the village located close to Achampet forest range.
As per local forest department officials, on Monday early morning Bodiya Naik, a resident of Gumpanpalle heard noises coming from near his field and went to investigate. When he reached the spot he found an animal caught in a snare. Usually such snares are laid down near agricultural fields to catch wild boar which come out of the forest and destroy crops. As it was still a little dark when Naik went out he miscalculated and ventured too close to the animal. The sloth bear caught hold of Naik and killed him.
According to some eyewitnesses the bear sat on the dead body; people could not retrieve Naik's body for a long time. It is also being said that Naik may have been trying to release the bear from the snare when he got attacked.
Local forest department officials did their best to control the angry mob from killing the sloth bear and called Hyderabad zoo officials immediately to rescue the animal. Within a few hours Dr Abdul Hakeem, Assistant Director (Veterinary) from Hyderabad zoo along with Forest Range Officer of zoo arrived at the spot. The bear was tranquilized and transported to the zoo. The bear had minor injuries, mainly on its neck due to being caught in the snare.
A forest officer from the division said, “Sloth bears sometimes venture near fields in search of food like termite mounds which have the insects in them. It is not the first time that there has been a man-sloth bear conflict in this region but there has been no such case of killing in many years.”
