Karimnagar: Panic grips as wild bear strays into human habitation

Karimnagar: As the wild animals that are supposed to stay in the forest areas are straying into the human habitation, causing panic among the residents of the area.

A similar incident took place in Manakondur mandal centre of Karimnagar district. According to locals and the forest officials, a bear found sitting on a tree in front of the Hanuman temple near the Manakondur tank embankment on Tuesday morning.

Locals and motorists was frightened on noticing it and informed the forest and police officials who cleared the traffic jam on the Warangal Karimnagar road from time to time and carried out rescue measures. The Warangal rescue team doctors set a net around the tree and tried to administer anesthetic as part of their efforts to catch the bear. In the meantime, the bear on the tree came down and ran away through the nearby pond. The forest officials and staff checked for some time near the embankment of the pond but it was not available.

The locals breathed a sigh of relief as the bear fled. After that, rescue operations continued from morning to afternoon to catch the bear, and finally till afternoon, the forest department officials administered anesthetic injection and it ran into the crop fields and fell down.

Locals alleged that the bear escaped because of the delay in the arrival of the rescue team from Warangal. The villagers lamented that it escaped as it took 6 to 7 hours for the rescue team to arrive and wished there should be a rescue team available in Karimnagar town.

District Forest Officer Balamani and local Manakondur CI Madas Rajkumar regularly reviewed the situation at the incident site. Huzurabad Forest Range Officer Rajeshwar Rao, section officer Soumya, Karimnagar section officer Sarita and beat officer participated in these relief activities.