Man-animal conflict on rise in Kupwara

Kupwara, Jan 6 : Following heavy snowfall in the upper reaches of this frontier district, the incidents of wild animals straying into human habitations are showing upward trend.

According to the officials of Wildlife Department, the animals are intruding in the human habitation to search for food as they are unable to find it in upper reaches due to accumulation and subsequent freezing of snow.

Due to intrusion of wild animals into the human habitations the incidents of man–animal conflict are on rise.

 Humans and livestock are increasingly falling prey to beast attacks. In recent spate of attacks, wild animals mostly bears have attacked  and wounded five persons including a woman in villages of Handwara Tehsil.

 The villages which are hit by wild animal scare include Rajwar, Chogal, Kultoora, Guloora, Hangishot, Pohrupat, Bungam, Kralgund, Ashpora, Shahlal and Ganipora.

 Reports said that during past few days, the bears attacked and injured Sara Begum of Kultoora, Abdul Ahad Dar of Bungam, Bashir Ahmad Dar of Guloora and Mohd Akbar Wani of Hanjishot.

 “A bear attacked victim Sara Begum near her house. The animal mauled her. The victim is battling for life at SK Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar.

 In another incident, a bear attacked Abdul Ahad Dar of Bungam in a nearby paddy field around 5 PM. The wild animal chopped jaw of the victim before fleeing from the spot after a few locals raised an alarm. “He is battling for life at SMHS hospital,” locals said, adding, “ Nearly 10 to 15 bears are on prowl and their our lives are in extreme danger.”

 They said the dozens of cattle had been devoured by the animals during past one week.

 Block forester Wild Life department Ghulam Mohiuddin said that due to the recent snowfall in upper reaches, the animals have intensified their movement in human habitations in search of food. He said that despite acute shortage of manpower, the department was sparing no effort to deal with the increasing scare of wild animals.

 “On receiving information about presence of a bears, we successfully used a tranquilizer on a bear in Mangwalpora and later removed the animal to wildlife park” he added.

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