Three persons including an employee of Chhattisgarh forest department were killed by a female wild bear in a forested village Navagaon in Mahasamund district. later, police later shot dead the wild bear on Saturday evening.
The deceased have been identified as Dhan Singh (65) son of Kushal Singh, Shatrughan Sidar son of Budhram Sidar (35) both resident of Navagaon under Pateva police station limits and KD Sahil.
“The two villagers and a forest department staff were killed by the wild bear in the forests adjoining Navagaon and we had no option but to gun down the bear to avoid more human casualties’’ Superintendent of Police (SP) Mahasamund Neha Champavat said.
According to police Dhan Singh and Shatrughan Sidar had gone to collect ‘mahua’ around 5 am on Saturday in the forests near Navagaon. However, when the duo did not return home by noon their family members reached the jungle and found their dead bodies having injuries and scratches all around their bodies.
KD Sahil an assistant project officer of forest department who was performing ‘Panchnama’ was also attacked and killed by the wild bear, police said.
Police had to kill the wild bear when it attacked the group of cops who were on the spot trying to move people away from the wild animal, officials stated.
Meanwhile, when contacted Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) BN Dwivedi on Saturday evening confirmed that a female bear had went on rampage in the forest and killed three persons.
Notably, last year State forest department had made a special scheme ‘Jamvant’ to deal with the wild bear problem in Chhattisgarh. A fund of Rs2.39 crore was also allocated for the purpose.