Locals say poachers have killed the bears under the pretext of destruction of maize and other crops by the animal in the villages near the Indian border. "The killings have not stopped despite repeated pleas," General Secretary of Kanchanjungha Singhalila Conservation Unit Nara Bahadur Mangmu said. [break]
"They told us they killed the animals because nobody is going to pay compensations for the lost crop and attack on human beings by the animal," Mangmu, a local of Falaincha, added.
The bears have been entering the villages through India as the bear population has increased in the forest of Singhalila National Park in Sikkim across the border. Locals around the forest call hunters to kill the bears that enter their field.
"The bears regularly return to eat crops, once they get a taste of it. So, the villagers have to call hunters," Trilochan Adhikari of Chyangthapu said.
The villagers usually feast on the meat and sell the gall bladder of the animal. Conservationist Mangmu says the trend of eating meat has stopped due to awareness campaigns but killings have not. "The poachers throw the body into the river now with just a few eating the meat secretly," Mangmu said.
Joint Secretary of Kanchanjungha Singhalila Conservation Unit Ratna Baniya said illegal poaching of wild boar, deer, bear and other wild animals has not come under control despite the best of efforts.
But deputy officer at the District Forest Office Satya Narayan Dev expressed ignorance over the killing of bears in Chyangthapu and Falaincha. "Nothing has been done except for a recent arrest of a man with gun and animal skin," Dev claimed.
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