The caged bear being taken to a truck with the help of a crane at Dalapchand on Tuesday. Picture by Prabin Khaling

Gangtok, Dec. 15: A Himalayan black bear that ate up more than 350 chickens in a poultry farm in East Sikkim over the weekend was trapped in a cage by foresters last night after treating it to honey and molasses laced with sedatives.

Sikkim’s principal chief conservator of forests-cum-secretary S.T. Lachungpa told The Telegraph today that the bear was successfully lured into a cage by a team of officials led by divisional forest officer (wildlife east) Karma Legshey at Dalapchand near Rhenock in East Sikkim around midnight. The spot is 72km from Gangtok.

“The bear had gobbled up 369 chickens in the poultry farm owned by Ganga Rai at Zero Point in Dalapchand. The caged bear was taken to the Memencho Lake area near the India-China border at Nathu-la and was released in the forest this afternoon,” Lachungpa said.

Rai said she had some 700 chickens in her farm and the bear attack ruined her business. “On Friday, the bear killed 300 chickens and ate them up. The next day, it killed another 34 followed by two more the same night, taking the total number of chickens killed to 369,” she said.

But this time the forest department did not take the risk of darting the bear. In an earlier incident of tranquillising, the bear had attacked the foresters. Under Legshey’s guidance, the foresters used a new way to trap the bear.

“This time, Legshey made a ball of molasses, honey and other items and laced them with sedatives and placed them inside the cage to trap and waylay the bear. The animal was trapped around 11.30pm yesterday,” Lachungpa said.

Legshey along with other foresters and the veterinarian of the Himalayan Zoological Park at Bulbuley used a double-door cage which was lifted with a crane to a truck and drove it up to the forests near Memencho Lake for the release.