Bear attacks on rise in Uttarakhand hills
Bear attacks on rise in Uttarakhand hills
B.D. Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, Oct 14
After man eating leopards, wild bears are posing a threat to people and their livestock living in Uttarakhand hills. In latest incidents, two persons were injured in attack by wild bears in two separate incidents in Dharchula sub-division of Pithoragarh district. The bears are also scavenging the abandoned homes in higher Himalayan valleys of Darma and Chaudans for food..
Ram Singh, a resident of Jumma village of Dharchula sub- division was admitted to the District Hospital, Pithoragarh after being seriously injured in an attack by a wild bear, while he was tending to his cattle in the forest.
Ram Singh was find lying unconscious after his children went looking for him when he did not returned home. “When I was busy rearing my sheep when the wild bear came suddenly and attacked me. I could rescue myself only after I hit the animal at his nose with my staff,” said Ram Singh, from hospital.
According to villagers the wild bears, who have come down to the valleys due to snowfall on higher reaches are targeting the villages situated in lower valleys of this part of Himalayan region. “The bears are damaging lone houses and killing pet animals besides attacking men and women,” said Ram Singh.
In another incident of bear attack also in Dharchula range of forest, one Pushkar Ram of Thamri kund village was injured by a wild bear on October 11, according to Balam Singh Almia, Range officer of Dharchula range of forest in Pithoragarh division. “We burst crackers and made loud sound to make the bears out of the meadows where the villagers graze their animal,” said Almia, the Dharchula range officer of forest.
The attack by bears have been frequent in recent years. In September 2025 in Chicholi village in Pauri district a Himalayan Black Bear killed 24 cows and bullocks inside cow shelters. Earlier, in another incident in Rudraprayag district two women were mauled and severely injured and hospitalized.
In another incident of human-wildlife conflict in July 2025, a 20-year-old postman died after being attacked by a wild bear while he was delivering mail in Bageshwar district. Over the past 25 years, bears have claimed 68 lives and severely injured 1,972 individuals in Uttarakhand.
