There is outrage in Jammu and Kashmir after two video clips went viral on social media showing a mob harassing a Critically Endangered Himalayan Brown Bear, an Asian relative of the North American Grizzly.
In the first clip, the bear is trying to extricate itself from a roll of barbed wire in which it had been caught at a village near Drass in the Kargil district of Ladakh.
In the second, more heart-breaking clip, the bear, after having freed itself, is seen climbing a sheer mountain ridge, overlooking a sheer drop into a gushing mountain stream 50 feet below.
A mob of locals is seen pelting the bear with stones due to which it loses its balance and falls into the stream. The videos were uploaded on Twitter by former director Tourism, Kashmir, Mehmood Shah.
The videos elicited hundreds of angry comments by Twitterati, including former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who demanded the arrest of the stone-pelters.
A media report quoted Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Baseer-ul-Haq Choudhary as stating that an FIR had been lodged and also teams had been constituted to trace the bear.
It also quoted Regional wildlife warden, Ladakh, Mohammad Sajid Sultan as saying, “There is an input that the animal has come out of the water downstream, but we cannot concretely say if the animal has survived.”
Source: Down to Earth, Sunday 12 May 2019.