Narrow escape for 2 from sloth bear attack in the Nilgiris
Around 8.50 pm, the girl was going home along with her mother from the Kotagiri bus stand through Bazaar Street. “As they were walking near the police station, a sloth bear emerged from the dark and began to chase the girl.
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COIMBATORE: A nine-year-old girl and her mother had a narrow escape after being chased by a sloth bear in the Nilgiris on Sunday night.
Around 8.50 pm, the girl was going home along with her mother from the Kotagiri bus stand through Bazaar Street. “As they were walking near the police station, a sloth bear emerged from the dark and began to chase the girl. The panicked girl and her mother ran into the station to take refuge,” said a staff of the forest department.
On hearing their loud cries, the villagers chased away the sloth bear by raising a loud noise. The animal then left the spot. They urged the forest department to trap the sloth bear by fixing cages and relocating into the forest.
In a similar incident, a couple from Karnataka escaped after an elephant came charging on them on the Gudalur-Mysore National Highways in the Nilgiris on Sunday night. The panicked couple left their two-wheeler in the middle of the road and ran to safety. After camping for a while along the roadside, the elephant however retreated into the forest area.
In another wildlife-related incident, the skeletal remains of a wild tusker were discovered by front-line staff of the forest department in the forest of Denkanikottai in Krishnagiri on Monday. After preliminary examination, the forest department officials suspect the elephant to have died of infighting.