Odisha man tries to click selfie with injured bear, gets mauled to death

BHUBANESWAR: A man in southern Odisha’s Nabarangpur district who wanted to click a selfie with a wounded bear died when the animal attacked him Wednesday evening, forest department officials said on Thursday.

Prabhu Bhatara, who was driving his group of fellow passengers in an SUV to Papadahandi from Kotapad, where they had gone to attend a wedding, had reportedly stopped near a forest to attend nature’s call.

He then spotted an injured bear and decided to click a selfie with the wild animal.

Others travelling with him had cautioned Bhatara but he went ahead and reached near the animal. “He was attacked and died on the spot,” forest ranger Dhanurjaya Mohapatra said.

Forest officials retrieved his body late on Wednesday evening after the bear was tranquilised.

Those travelling with Bhatara said that a stray dog had tried to fight off the bear when it attacked him but the dog failed to save the man from the bear’s grip, officials said. “The bear is being treated for its injuries,” Mohapatra said.

Bhatara’s family is learnt to have received ~30,000 to pay for his last rites even as angry locals blocked roads demanding compensation for his family. Forest officials assured the protesters their demand would be taken up.

This is the third wild animalrelated “selfie death” in Odisha in the past year. Earlier this month, a wild bear had killed three people, including two forest officials, in Keonjhar and injured six others. The animal was later beaten to death by locals.

Last December, a man was killed by a wild elephant in Angul while trying to take a selfie with it. In September 2017, a man in Rourkela was trampled to death by a wild elephant while trying to click a selfie with the animal.

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