Forest minister orders detailed probe into sloth bear's death
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Forest minister has ordered a detailed probe into the death of a sloth bear at Vellanad near Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
The bear drowned in a well while trying to escape from human habitation.
The forest department had come under fire for their poorly planned rescue operation.
Forest minister A K Saseendran told TNIE that the mishap should not have happened.
He added that he received the preliminary report filed by the Divisional Forest Officer, K I Pradeep Kumar, who was on the spot.
"The preliminary report states that the sloth bear fell through the side of a ring net into a well. The crowd was also an issue as it was difficult for the forest officials to remove the water in the well when the sloth bear was inside. I wanted to have a detailed probe on the incident and have sought the same from CWW", said Saseendran.
The CWW who is also the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) is expected to give a detailed report on Monday.
The sloth bear fell into the well of one Prabhakaran Nair, who lives in a rented house.
The incident happened in the wee hours of Thursday at Vellanad Kannampally grama panchayat ward.
The wild animal had apparently tried to snatch chickens lodged in a coop. After a ruckus, the panic-stricken bear had tried to escape and it landed inside the well. A household member alerted the Police and forest officials.
As the forest veterinarian was on leave, they hired the service of Dr Jacob Alexander, senior veterinary surgeon, at Thiruvananthapuram Zoo.
By the time the senior vet had reached there, the forest department officials had already set the ring net inside the well with the sloth bear on top of it.
The animal fell into the water as the forest department authorities tried to pull it up. It took more than 15 minutes for the authorities to retrieve the drowned animal.
The postmortem revealed that the 9 – 15 years old male sloth bear, which was otherwise healthy, had died of drowning.