Sloth bear claws to death four in Maharashtra village

NAGPUR - A sloth bear strayed from the forest and clawed four people to death, including a forest department employee and a teacher, in a village in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, police said Thursday.

“The first attack happened late last night. The bear must have strayed to the Jarida village from a nearby forest and killed a forest department employee,” said J.S. Tambare, sub-divisional police officer of Dharni in Amravati district, 150 km from Nagpur.

“The forest department officials were alerted and they went looking for the bear, but found only the bodies of two other victims. One of them was a teacher in the local school,” added Tambare.

The fourth dead body, of a 17-year-old boy, was found Thursday afternoon. All the four bodies had claw marks on the face and neck. “Some marks have been found on the hands and legs of the victims too, which must have happened when the victims tried to resist the bear attack,” said Tambare.

The forest department is on the look out for the animal.