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J&K: Stoned by locals, bear tumbles down several feet into stream

WILDLIFE DYSTOPIA: Onlookers jeer at the helpless animal, cheer as it falls, in Jammu & Kashmir’s drass

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(L) The brown bear seen trying to balance itself on the steep ridge, (R) it fell several feet below in a stream —Twitter/Mehmood Ahmad Shah
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A heart-wrenching incident of a hapless brown bear slipping into a stream several feet below, after being chased and stoned on a steep mountain ridge in Drass, sparked massive uproar in Jammu and Kashmir.

A rescue operation has been launched by Wildlife department officials to retrieve the brown bear from the water. Deputy Commissioner of Kargil, Baseer-ul Haq Chaudhary has ordered that the people involved in the incident be identified.

The incident came to fore when an eight-second video of the bear being stoned in the cold dessert of Drass and slipping into a stream with people's jeers and cheers audible in the background, went viral in Kashmir. "This is macabre, happened today at Drass", tweeted Mehmood Ahmad Shah, former tourism director along with the eight-second video.

Former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti also took to Twitter and described the incident as heartbreaking. "Heartbreaking and inhuman. Why invade their habitat in the first place?" she said.

The incident occurred when the brown bear strayed into a human settlement in Drass. Fearing that it would attack, some people chased the bear and the animal took shelter in a tin shed where he got injured.

Later some people stoned the animal as he climbed a ridge overlooking a tributary of River Drass. Since the ridge was steep, the bear could not balance himself amid hail of stones, slipped, and fell.

It was not immediately known if the bear survived as officials were involved in the rescue operation until the time of going to press.

"The bear has not died. The animal has survived and our rescue mission is on. This animal is very heavy and it weighs between 300 to 400 kilograms. Plus the spot is in the mountains and not near the road. Sub-Divisional Magistrate Drass and Wildlife Warden are on the job," said Chaudhary.

Chaudhary said they are scanning the videos to identify the people involved in the incident. "We are identifying how many people are there and what sort of action is needed," he said.

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