Keonjhar: With wild sloth bear mauling three people to death, the state forest department has issued advisories asking forest-side villagers not to venture into the forested areas which flush with fruit-bearing trees.
The sloth bears often frequent the forest areas, which are covered with fruit-bearing trees such as mangoes and jack fruits. As these fruits mature and ripe during summer, the wild animals throng the specific pockets for their daily food intake.
The animals also intrude into the orchards within the human habitations areas. That leads to the outbreak of man-animal confrontation. "The incident that occurred on Monday at Kheriadiha village was a result of human interference in the animals' habitat," said regional chief conservator of forest Lingaraj Otta.
Villagers lying near the forest have been sounded precautionary warning and asked to refrain from venturing into the forest areas and orchards all alone, he said.
The forest officials suspect "whiff" of liquor in the wild bear in going amuck and killing humans at will at the village. Widespread preparation of local brew handia attracts the wild bears to stray into the villages.
"We suspect the animal had turned tipsy. We have never seen bear displaying such violent behavioural instinct as the animal did on Monday. Therefore, people were warned to refrain from liquor brewing at the village or forest areas," he said.
Three villagers - Niladri Naik, Naba Kishore Naik and Bideshi Mahakud - were killed in lethal attack by the animal. Later, the angry villagers had retaliated and beaten it to death.