COONOOR: Man-bear conflict has begun to rise in Coonoor hills in Nilgiris as incidents of the wild beast straying into the arterial part of Coonoor town and suburbs has scared residents and kept foresters on tenterhooks.
Call it a monsoon misery or monsoon blues, the bear menace has turned nightmarish for residents in Vannarpet area in Coonor as well as in the Halakarai limits in the suburb of Coonoor hills as the past few days saw frequent incidents of bear movement that too at times in broad daylight, causing fear among Halakarai farm workers.
The movement of a bear that was recorded in the CCTV cameras in a couple of private houses in Vannarpet area.
Pictures show a solitary bear is roaming freely in this prime residential area in the night hours and in the early morning hours.
Green activists reasoned that the beginning of the pears-fruiting season is the cause for bears entering human settlements in the farmlands in Halakarai limits.
However, the movement of bear in Vannarpet area, an arterial part of Coonoor town, has shocked the residents.
As this emerging man-bear conflict has caused panic among the residents in both Coonoor town and Halakari limits, the residents there urged the Forest department to evolve strategies to capture the bear in both the localities, and to re-locate them to give quick relief to citizens.
