Bear stoned mercilessly, it tumbles off cliff into stream

Srinagar, May 11: A shocking video has gone viral on social media showing a brown bear tumbling into a stream from a steep mountain ridge after being stoned by people in Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting authorities to launch an operation to trace the animal.

The eight-second video -- shared on Twitter by former director Tourism, Kashmir, Mehmood Shah –- shows a brown bear being stoned by people in Drass area of Kargil district in Ladakh region of the state. The bear had climbed a steep mountain ridge after being chased by the people from the nearby village, but fell into a stream after losing balance as stones were thrown at the animal.

The people could be heard cheering as the animal tumbled into the stream. The incident sparked outrage on the social media as several people, including former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, termed it heartbreaking and inhuman.

"Heartbreaking & inhuman. Why invade their habitat in the first place?" Mehbooba wrote on Twitter while sharing the video clip. Several netizens have demanded that the people behind the stone throwing on the animal be identified and brought to book.

After the incident came to the fore, the authorities have launched an operation to trace the bear and are also trying to identify the people involved in the act. Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Baseer-ul-Haq Choudhary has ordered an inquiry and teams from the wildlife and other departments have been constituted to trace the brown bear.

"An FIR has been registered," the DC said, adding they were also trying to identify the people who threw stones at the bear due to which it slipped into the stream and action would be taken against them. PTI SSB RCJ