What is it like to face a bear and live to tell the tale? Meet the survivors

Amruta Gawli, 37, and Gopal Kandelkar, 27, have both been attacked by sloth bears in the past six months. Gawli was attacked from behind and left with injuries to her arms and two broken fingers. Kandelkar was attacked near an artificial watering hole in February. He works for the forest department, filling water up for the animals in the sanctuary. He still bears teeth marks on his shoulder and chest. Their village of Botha lies on the outskirts of the Dnyanganga Wildlife Sanctuary in Buldhana, Maharashtra. ((Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo) WARNING: THE IMAGES THAT FOLLOW MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS)

Updated on: May 13, 2017 3:41 PM IST

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Amruta Gawli, 37, and Gopal Kandelkar, 27, have both been attacked by sloth bears in the past six months. Gawli was attacked from behind and left with injuries to her arms and two broken fingers. Kandelkar was attacked near an artificial watering hole in February. He works for the forest department, filling water up for the animals in the sanctuary. He still bears teeth marks on his shoulder and chest. Their village of Botha lies on the outskirts of the Dnyanganga Wildlife Sanctuary in Buldhana, Maharashtra. ((Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo) WARNING: THE IMAGES THAT FOLLOW MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS)

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Dev Singh Chavan, 70, was attacked three years ago. He lost an eye while fighting a sloth bear for his life, in his fields outside Karwand village. (Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)

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Kanta Rathore, 55, had half her face ripped off two years ago, while working on the harvest in her tur dal field. She got Rs 80,000 in compensation and had to sell her farmland to pay for treatment. Her two sons moved away; she says their wives couldn’t bear to live with her. Neighbours shun her too; she can’t even find work in the village. She now earns Rs 80 a day working as a farm labourer in a neighbouring village. “It’s not my fault that the bear attacked me,” she says, “but I am the one being punished.” (Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)

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Asin Shah, 11, had his scalp torn away last December. His grandfather stepped in front of the bear to protect him, and died saving the boy’s life. He has since dropped out of school. He is too afraid to venture far from the house. “Asin’s scalp was hanging from his head,” remembers his father Yasin, 33. “He was so bad that the local hospital in Buldhana wouldn’t treat him. We spent all our Rs 3 lakh compensation on treatment in Aurangabad.” (Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)

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Brothers Baban, 35, and Gagan Chavan, 30, had a bear drop down on them from a tree, seemingly startled by the sound of their motorcycle. They had driven into the fringes of the forest to collect firewood. The sloth bear attacked Gagan and started biting into his arm and legs. “I picked up a rock and smashed it on its back. This just made things worse. It turned and bit my thigh,” says Baban. “I felt my jeans soaking in the blood as it rushed down my leg.” Only the sound of more bikes approaching saved the two men. “Thankfully, more villagers were coming the same way.” Gagan needed 72 stiches across his arms and legs; Baban needed 24. (Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)

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This sloth bear cub was rescued by the forest department on April 11, near Botha village. As the forest grows, alongside the human population, and years of drought make water scarce, it’s a lose-lose situation, for now. (Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)