Handwara: A terrifying encounter with a black bear in the Mawar area of Handwara, located in the north of Kashmir's Kupwara district, left three individuals injured on Tuesday.
According to reports, the alarming incident occurred at Yahama village in Mawar when the black bear unexpectedly appeared and attacked three individuals.
The injured were identified as Javid Ahmad Pir, Bashir Ahmad Sheikh, and Mohammad Yousaf Sheikh. Following the attack, they were swiftly evacuated to a nearby health facility.
When contacted, a Wildlife Department official, he said that a team has been rushed to the area to capture the bear.
Unlike Brown Bear, the Himalayan Black Bear can be found around the upper reaches of the valley. However, with climate change altering weather patterns and the duration of snow and summer, the hibernation period of the black bear has taken a hard hit over time.
Human-wildlife conflict has certainly escalated greatly in the past few years in Kashmir. As per officials, the man-animal conflict has claimed 242 lives and 2,940 people have been injured in such incidents from 2006 till the end of 2022.