UMERKOTE: A road contractor died after fighting a bear for over 40 minutes here in Bhatrasiuni village in Nabarangpur block on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the bear, too, lost its life sometime later after falling from a cliff during his escape bid.
The deceased Brijesh Tribedi belonged to Mahir village in Madhya Pradesh. Sources said Tribedi had been residing in a temporary camp along with other workers for road construction work. On the day, he had gone to answer nature’s call near a pond in the area when the bear from a nearby forest pounced on him.
On hearing his screams, the workers and locals reached the spot to rescue him. However, the crowd further triggered the animal and it began attacking Tribedi on his face. While efforts to save him failed, Tribedi succumbed after battling with the bear for over 40 minutes.
As the people advanced towards the bear, they got frightened and tried to rush back to the forest. It was, however, attacked by the locals after running for some 200-300 metre distance. During its desperate attempt to escape, the bear lost balance fell off a 15-foot-deep cliff and died. Nabarangpur divisional forest officer (DFO) Shubhendu Prasad Behera said the bear’s body was recovered from under the cliff, sent for autopsy and buried.
Meanwhile, Nabarangpur police seized Tribedi’s body and sent it to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) for postmortem. An unnatural death case was registered and the body was handed over to the deceased’s family.