SHOPIAN: A wild brown bear was caught at Pinjora village of Shopian after eleven days of tiresome efforts by the three control room wings of wildlife department and villagers.
An official said that six teams comprising of 10-15 men were deployed on Saturday caught the animal by firing four darts, each 10 milliliters – which tranquilised it.
“Today we called experts and bought four dart guns,” Control room in charge wild life control room Shopian told Kashmir Reader. He said that it took them around 300 men for 11 days to catch the bear.
Locals from the village hailed the efforts of wildlife department. They said that the men of wildlife caged themselves for nights to tranquillise the animal.
Mudasir Ahmad in charge control told Kashmir Reader that the department called employees from two other controls of south Kashmir to avoid any untoward incident.
“It was a rare case as brown bear don’t come to human habitations. It was a giant bear ,” he said, adding that the bear forced them to chase it for 30 kilometers radius throughout the day.
Officials said that they have been given orders to release the animal in one of the wildlife sanctuaries based in Kashmir.
An official who was deputed to catch the bear said that they could have caught the bear few days ago, but the lack of safety equipment’s were not able to do so.
Technical Officer wildlife division Shopian, Gulzar Ahmad Khan said that the heavy disturbances to the wildlife habitations has affected the food and shelter of wild animals – which according him forces the animals to roam in human habitations.
“Brown bear was caught in human habitation which is an alarming situation, and both people and government must take steps to safe forests and wildlife habitations,” he said.

Raashid Hassan