Srinagar
J&K Wildlife Protection Department officials said on Saturday they have captured four black bears after they were found in human habitations in south Kashmir areas. Officials said they successfully tranquillised a 500-kg male bear at Bachoo Sagam in the Kokernag area of Anantnag district.
Three other bears were captured in cages installed at Ashmaqum by the Seer Wildlife Control Room. Officials said all four bears were captured alive by the Wildlife South Division Bijbehara during the day-long operation. These wild bears will be kept under surveillance for some time, and after that they will be restored to their natural habitat. Wild bears, primarily Asiatic black bears, are increasingly wandering out of forests and into residential areas, university campuses and villages across the Kashmir Valley. Climate change and unseasonably mild or short winters have disrupted natural hibernation cycles, keeping bears active longer.
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Expanding apple orchards, land-use changes, and reduced forest buffer zones draw wildlife closer to human settlements in search of food. Protection laws and bans on poaching have led to a healthy increase in the wild bear population, raising the frequency of overlap with human habitations. Bears have been spotted roaming through parts of Srinagar (including university campuses), Anantnag, Ganderbal, Bandipora, and Kupwara districts. Alongside the surge in black bear sightings, the Kashmir Valley has seen an increase in other wild animals venturing into human habitations. The common leopard is the primary driver of these encounters, alongside several other opportunistic and shifting species. The common leopard has become highly adaptable, increasingly utilising dense social forestry plantations, nursery grounds, and sprawling apple orchards as cover.
Stray dogs thriving on poorly managed garbage near towns and villages provide a ready food supply, alongside local livestock and poultry. Frequent sightings and rescue operations have triggered panic across multiple districts. In recent weeks, the J&K Wildlife Protection Department successfully trapped and relocated leopards following sightings near Budgam Degree College Road, residential colonies in Baramulla (such as Microwave Colony) and villages across Ganderbal and Kulgam. The J&K Wildlife Protection Department has deployed rapid-response teams and control rooms to tranquillise and capture stray animals, often relocating them back to natural habitats like Dachigam National Park. Authorities advise residents to exercise caution during peak harvesting and early winter hours, secure garbage and livestock properly, and immediately report sightings to local wildlife control rooms.
