Wildlife Encounter

Editorial:
Bear attacks, which were extensively in the news a couple years ago, are back in the headlines with an attack reported from a village near Khamdong behind the Rumtek hill. In this incident, a lady who had gone into the forest area to collect fodder came face to face with a Himalayan Black Bear and was mauled. She survived the attack and is currently recuperating at a nursing home in Siliguri, but the Forest Department response was lethal and Himalayan Black Bear was shot to death there. One says ‘a’ Himalayan Black Bear because there is no guarantee that it was the bear which had mauled the lady which was shot down.
What is confounding in this episode is that the killing of wildlife in retribution is neither prescribed nor tolerated by any law. The only times when the killing of wildlife is allowed is when an animal becomes a man-eater or when its presence is posing a direct threat to the lives and property of people. And yet, a Himalayan Black Bear was killed last week after a lady was attacked in a forest area. When humans stray into forest areas, they know they are entering wild territory and that a chance encounter with wildlife will not end well for them. In a way, we are trespassing and the animal is only being itself when it attacks instinctively. The Forest Department has not issued any official statement on the incident and Forest personnel are patrolling the entire area [of Khamdong hill] where bear sightings have been reported. Maize has ripened in the higher hills. Ever since maize has been grown in these parts, bears have raided the fields along with an assortment of other wildlife like monkeys and porcupines. Attracted by the scent of ripened maize, bears can be expected in the forest fringes, those degraded forest belts they would otherwise stay away from. People have traditionally taken adequate precautions to avoid such encounters, but accidents still happen, and the latest attack was one such. The response however was definite example of lapse of reason and a more detailed clarification should be offered. The State’s forest cover might have grown in absolute terms, but contiguous forest areas in Sikkim have been compromised by human encroachments, so increased human-wildlife encounters cannot be blamed on the wildlife; definitely not at the cost of killing them for it. One can sympathise with the 50-year-old Mani Tamang of Thangsing Basti near Khamdong in East Sikkim who was mauled by a bear on 19 August, but try as one may, one cannot understand why the bear was chased down and shot to death.