Sloth bear captured at Karimnagar’s Manakondur

A sloth bear that created a flutter in Manakondur mandal headquarters on Tuesday, was captured by a Forest rescue team after it stayed on a tree for seven hours

Karimnagar: A sloth bear that created a flutter in Manakondur mandal headquarters on Tuesday, was captured by a Forest rescue team after it stayed on a tree for seven hours.

According to local residents, the sloth bear was found on the top of a tree in the premises of a house near the Hanuman temple when they woke up around 4.30 am after hearing dogs barking non-stop. Panicking after seeing the bear, residents of the area closed themselves inside their homes.

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By morning, people from other localities gathered in big numbers at the spot. Since the spot is located beside the Karimnagar-Warangal national highway passing through the gram panchayat office near Manakondur tank bund, traffic also came to a near standstill.

Forest and police officials too reached the spot soon and started a rescue operation by calling in a Forest rescue team from Warangal. The crowd was dispersed and the vehicles on the highway were also cleared. While the rescue team personnel were arranging nets under the tree to catch the bear after sedating it, the sloth bear got scared and slid down the tree and ran into the nearby bushes. The officials however followed it and shot it with a tranquiliser gun, after which it was captured from the nearby paddy fields.The bear was then shifted to Warangal forest office, from where it will be left in the forests after gaining consciousness, officials said.

District forest officer Balamani, who monitored the rescue operation, said they were suspecting that the bear came from the nearby hillocks. It could have been frightened after seeing the people and vehicles and climbed up the tree.