Bear mauls man to death in Odisha forest

A wild bear Monday mauled a man to death in a forest in Odisha and injured another, an official said.

The bear attacked two people in a forest near Andramunda, 600 km from state capital Bhubaneswar. While one of them was found dead, another was critically injured, Divisional Forest Officer L.K. Mishra told IANS.

He said four members of Vana Surakhya Samiti (VSS), a voluntary group engaged in forest protection and conservation, had gone to the forest despite being warned by forest officials that bears were in the region.

"The VSS members spotted four wild bears in the forest. While they managed to chase three bears away, the fourth attacked them," he said.

This was the second such incident in Odisha's Koraput district in the last one month. A wild bear had killed eight people and injured five others in the area in the first week of May. Angry villagers had beaten the animal to death.