Man killed by bear in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh

The man was attacked when he was returning home from work

A 48-year-old man was killed by a bear on Wednesday in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district, officials said.

Photo for representational purpose only.

Kamal Upadhyay, a revenue sub-inspector of Laspa village, where the incident took place, said that the deceased was a labourer working on a Border Roads Organisation’s (BRO) project on Munsiyari-Milam road.

“The middle-aged man was attacked by the wild bear near his village when he was returning home from work. The bear killed him and left his body on a rock. The body was found on Wednesday and sent for post-mortem examination,” said Upadhyay.

State forest department officials along with the revenue team would keep a tab on the bear to prevent such incidents in future, he added.

In early May, a fire watcher of the state forest department was attacked and severely injured by a bear at Khatna area in Udham Singh Nagar district.

Dev Ratan Gupta (28), a resident of Chhoti Bakuliya village and a fire watcher in Surai range of Khatima under the Terai (east) forest division, was out on patrolling duty when he was attacked by a bear.

Of late, bear attacks have been on the rise in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon administrative division.

In February, Jagdish Singh, a resident of Nanakmatta in Udham Singh Nagar district, was attacked by a bear when he had gone to a forest to fetch fodder for his cattle. Later, he was referred to an advanced medical centre.

In a similar incident in January, which also occurred in Nanakmatta, Balwant Singh, a farmer, had suffered grievous injuries.

Earlier, Prabhu Dutt Joshi (47) of Dhari block of Nainital district was killed by a bear while he was rearing his goat in a nearby forest.

Though forest officials had set up a cage to catch the bear, the wild animal gave them a slip.

Last November, Govind Singh Mehta, a farmer (55) from Satgarh Tok in Bageshwar district, was attacked by a bear and admitted to a hospital in Almora district.

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