Nature strikes back: Teacher mauled by bear while hunting cubs

[Areesh]

MANSEHRA: A hunter was killed while attempting to illegally hunt bear cubs in a Kaghan Valley forest on Wednesday.

Kaghan police SHO Khursheed Khan said Mazhar Afaq, 35, worked as a teacher at the Government Boys Middle School Rajwal.

Quoting Afaq’s wife Samina, the SHO said the schoolteacher left his house for Rajwal forest to hunt bear cubs three days ago and never returned. His family searched for him and announced his disappearance through the local mosque, but did not find any clue to his whereabouts.

When a group of villagers went searching for Afaq in the forest on Tuesday afternoon, they spotted his body in the bushes, and took it to a hospital in Kaghan.

According to hospital sources, Afaq had been dead for three days and sustained deep wounds on his face and chest. The size of these wounds indicated he had been attacked by a female bear, after which Afaq could not move and died because of the severe cold and his injuries. The victim’s limbs were intact, said doctors.

The SHO said during winter, when mountain tops receive heavy snowfall, bears and leopards move down to the populated areas for better subsistence. Poachers use that opportunity to catch bear cubs which they usually sell to buyers from Punjab. Hunters also kill bears and sell their hides at exorbitant rates, said SHO Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2013.

Nature strikes back: Teacher mauled by bear while hunting cubs – The Express Tribune

Well that's mama bear's revenge.

 

[[Bregs]]

Bears are damn possessive and aggressive when with there kids, man is the ultimate enemy of these wild creatures

 

[armchairPrivate]

No kidding. This is what I met on the trail a few days ago. I was rushing to shoot the cub (with my camera) while looking around for the presence of mama bear.

 

[RescueRanger]

People underestimate the shear brute strength of these majestic creatures, let alone the ferocity with which a mother would defend her cubs. Serves the poacher right.

 

[Aamna14]

Don't mess with the cubs of any animal. A mother is a mother.