A team of Uttarakhand forest department recently rescued an adult Himalayan black bear from a remote village in Pauri district in a challenging situation. The bear had got trapped in a cowshed, and as the news spread, the remote Dabar village attracted big crowd. They began arriving early morning and stayed at the location till the black bear was tranquillised and taken away by the forest department.
The Dabar village was reeling under a fear of the bear for a long time. There had been several reports of man-animal conflicts in the area. On 27 November, the bear entered the cowshed by breaking the roof.
It killed a calf and seriously injured a cow, but refused to come out of the shed even after feasting on the calf meat. Rakesh Chand Dabral, a villager, said, “We came to know about the incident in the morning and immediately informed the forest department.
The forest department team was successful in tranquillising the bear. As many villages were affected by the bear, they turned up in high number to see the proceedings.” After the animal had been tranquillised, it was a challenging task to carry the heavy black bear from the village to the road head, though the distance was not big. Covering 60-70 meters, carrying the bear, took over one and a half hours.
About 30 people were used to ferrying the unconscious bear wrapped in a net. Kotdwar’s Forest Ranger R P Pant said, “After rescuing, the bear was taken to animal rescue centre at Chidiyapur and was released in the wild on Wednesday.” Dabar is home to less than a hundred inhabitants.
But the news about the trapped bear spread like wildfire and over 200 visitors from nearby villages descended Dabar to see the rescue work.
The team of the forest department reached around 8 am and the rescue operation continued till 10 pm. The arrival of the tranquilliser gun and a veterinary doctor created lot of curiosity. As the operation was complicated, a big number of forest staff was also present and the special operation could be wrapped up only after 13-14 hours.