It was scary to see Himalayan black bears in various central areas of Srinagar city recently. These bears fearlessly strolled on roads, scaled walls and even swam in a lake as if on a city tour!

These bears even reached the premises of prestigious institutions like University of Kashmir and Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura. These wild animals gave sleepless nights to students, teachers, medicos, and inhabitants of adjoining localities. In a lighter vein, these bears seemed to take a leaf from classic American adventure comedy Baby’s Day Out in which an abducted baby escapes in dramatic ways. These bears gave some tough time to Wildlife authorities. After hectic efforts, one of the bears was caught at Lal Bazar locality on Saturday night while others are still on the run.

Humour apart, this is a serious issue when wild animals leave their natural habitat and infiltrate into human habitations! This kind of human-animal conflict can lead to serious collateral damage. There has been a rise in incidents when wild animals especially bears and leopards enter villages, but sighting bears in Srinagar’s heavily populated area is alarming.

Wildlife authorities maintain that Hazratbal and adjoining zones have become a conducive habitat for bears due to unattended land patches, thick bushes, and abundant food waste generated by restaurants and food outlets. They also blame rising stray dog populations as easy food........

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