Three men were killed and two were injured by a bear at a village near the Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve (STR) in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district on Monday, officials said. The animal was also injured in the clash and was later killed by angry locals.
Rajesh Kanna, Deputy Director, STR, told The Hindu that the incident took place early on Monday in Bastua village between the core and buffer zones in the Madwas range of the Tiger Reserve after the bear attacked a buffalo.
Mr. Kanna said that five villagers tried to chase away the bear to rescue the buffalo, which caused the animal to attack them.
“Bear being a vengeful animal instantly charged at the men, leading to two of them dying on the spot,” he said, adding that two men were critically injured in the incident and were sent to Sidhi district hospital.
One of them passed away during treatment, while the other was referred to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in the neighbouring Rewa district and is currently under treatment.
“We are in touch with the doctors in Rewa and have also deployed officials to help his family there. His condition is improving, but he has open injuries, so it’s difficult to say anything at the moment,” Mr. Kanna said, adding that the two survivors have been given anti-rabies treatment.
“The bear had attacked the buffalo, so there are chances that it got infected and further transferred it to the men, so we gave anti-rabies treatment to them as a precautionary measure,” he added.
Stun batons
The deceased have been identified as Babbu Yadav, 80; his son Santosh Yadav, 43’ and Deenbandhu Sahu, 70.
Mr. Kanna said that post mortem examinations were performed on the three men, and the bodies have been handed over to their families along with aid of ₹10,000 each for the funerals.
The forest department will also provide ₹8 lakh to the families of each of the deceased, Mr. Kanna said.
“We have also performed a post mortem on the bear and cremated it as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA),” he said, adding that the bear had sustained injuries in the clash with the five men as they had thrown big stones at the animal.
“Later, more locals gathered and tried to chase it away with sticks and stones; it finally succumbed to injuries,” he said.
Mr. Kanna said that the forest department is planning to implement various safety measures to avoid similar incidents in the future, including providing a smart stick that produces a minor shock to each family in the villages that fall within red zone areas.
“Our staff is already using them, so we are now considering supplying them to villagers too. We are also going to increase patrolling in the red zone areas that have been marked based on previous incidents involving wild animals. The locals have asked to fence such areas, so we are discussing that too,” he said, while claiming that no incident had been reported in Bastua village and its surroundings recently.
Published – July 08, 2025 01:29 am IST
