Chased by mob, bear drowns in Drass stream

An endangered Himalayan brown bear drowned in a stream in Drass area of Kargil district after a group of people chased and stoned him on Friday.

A video which has gone viral on social media showing a brownbear tumbling into a stream from a steep mountain ridge after being stoned bypeople.

   

The eight-second video was earlier shared on Twitter byformer director Tourism Kashmir, Mehmood Shah.

The bear had climbed a steep mountain ridge after beingchased by the people from the nearby village, but fell into the stream afterlosing balance as stones were thrown at the animal.

According to the reports the brown bear which is mostlyfound in Drass area was spotted near a local government middle school afterwhich a group of people chased the animal. Frightened, the bear climbed a steepmountain ridge.

Regional wildlife warden Leh, Sajad Sultan, told GreaterKashmir that the incident happened on Friday and they have launched a rescueoperation to trace the bear.

“It is an unfortunate incident where people could getinvolved into this kind of act, the department has launched a rescue operationto trace the drowned bear,” he said.

He further said that the department has registered a case inthis regard.

Deputy Commissioner Kargil, Baseer-ul-Haq Choudhary, saidthat an inquiry has been ordered and teams from the wildlife and otherdepartments have been constituted to trace the brown bear.

“An FIR has been registered,” the DC said, addingthat they were also trying to identify the people who threw stones at the beardue to which it slipped into the stream. “Action will be taken against them,”the DC told Greater Kashmir over phone.

Several people including former chief minister MehboobaMufti termed the incident heartbreaking and inhuman.

“Heartbreaking & inhuman. Why invade their habitatin the first place?” Mehbooba wrote on Twitter while sharing the videoclip.

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