Kashmiri girl Muskan, 14, displays outside her home an axe that the family carries with them when they go outdoors at night to protect themselves from wild animals, at Dardkhor village, outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals. According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
By MUKHTAR KHAN Associated Press
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals.
According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. Above, Saleema Bano, 58, a Kashmiri woman who survived an attack by a wild bear, poses for a photograph inside her house at Ladhoo village, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug . 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
The Himalayan black bear is at the heart of this trouble. Experts say over 80% of the deaths and maulings are due to attacks by black bears.
