Mount Abu's bear infestationis scaring tourists away

For tourists heading to Mount Abu, brace yourself to be accosted by one of the 350 sloth bears that have now become a regular menace in the hill station. With dwindling vegetation cover in the Aravali mountains, they have started moving in on the nearby towns, most notably, Mount Abu.

Close to sunset and after nightfall, they can now be seen walking along along the market, Sunset Point, Dilwara Temple and even the summer abode of the Governor of Rajasthan.

Fond of sweets and ice-cream, these bears are now aggressively seeking food, sometimes, even breaking into stores to get their hands on the food. Bharat Singh Deora, a ranger with the forest department told DNA, "Hotel owners throw garbage outside and tourists feed the bears. This has habituated them to easy food access, but it also heightens the threat of an attack. When a bear enters these populated areas, we immediately move in and shift people away from the animals."

Three days ago, one Hari Singh, of village Salgaon was injured by a bear while he was working in the field and had to be hospitalised.

Suresh Ola, Sub-divisional Magistrate of Mount Abu, said, "Here, bears come into human habitation area regularly. However, with the graba season, people are out late and there a tourist influx, too. So we are running awareness campaigns and have deployed a dedicated team of forest department officials to manage the bears."