M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Oct 13: The wildlife week, which so far has been an Oct 2 to 8 affair every year for decades, began almost 8 days late from October 10 and will conclude on October 16.
The major thrust is on the bear menace in the Mahuadanr range. There is a considerable menace of the bear now and in the last three months bear attack has gone up. There has been a couple of deaths too, according to the ranger of Mahuadanr, Brinda Pandey.
Mukesh Kumar, deputy director South division of the PTR, said, “We have distributed posters in this regard informing villagers of the DOs and DON’Ts to follow when confronted with a bear.
It says when a bear appears, try not to run as bears are good runners and may overtake you very soon. Then try to make yourself look like a football by putting your head between your two hands to read the poster.
As per the poster, in case of a bear bite, they should get an anti-rabies shot. Four such anti-rabies shots are to be taken which are free of cost.
“In this series, girl students of a school were also made aware of the behaviour and mode of attack of the bear. A wildlife film was also screened for them,” said Mukesh Kumar.
Bear attacks face and head more and if Alaska is notorious for more and more bear attacks in the USA, Madhya Pradesh in India has a high prevalence of sloth bear attacks and no wonder PTR may come upfront in years in regard to the bear attacks. here its supremacy is unchallenged.
Mukesh Kumar said we have reasons to believe that there has been a rise in the population of bears in the PTR. Mahuadanr range has wolves too but the wolves despite many bad stories about them, are not feared or despised as the bear.
