Taichi Kaizuka / Mainichi; Tend
The huge bear population in northeastern Japan is hungry — and has started to invade residential areas. The attacks are sowing panic and have already claimed 13 lives.
The Japanese government announced this Friday a plan that “aims to reduce bear overpopulationmoving them away from inhabited areas and intensifying capture efforts”, declared the government’s secretary general, Minoru Kiharaat a press conference.
The plan includes an effort to recruit former police officers retiredwhose experience in carrying and using firearms is considered useful in the effort to contain the bear population, detailed Kihara, cited by .
In recent months there have been almost daily reports of bear attackswhich roam residential areas, enter homes, destroy supermarkets and approach schools.
These attacks, which 13 people have been killed and more than 100 injuredhave sown panic among the population, especially in the regions of Akita and Iwate, in the northeast of the country, where most of the attacks took place.
Keiji Minatoyaa 68-year-old pastry chef who was attacked in his garage, tells AFP that he remembers having fought to protect the head before being able to take refuge in the kitchen. “I just thought: I will die like this”.
According to the AFP agency, some municipalities have already mobilized riot police to support local hunters responsible for capture and slaughter the bears., which can blind the weigh more than 500 kg and run faster than a human.
Japanese police officers, who are usually equipped with rifles, have been there since Thursday authorized to kill bearsafter the country’s strict firearms regulations were relaxed.
The Army was also mobilized to the northeastern regions of the country, but the soldiers are not armed; are equipped with bear sprays, batons, shields, goggles, bulletproof vests and net launchers, they will help transport bear traps, hunters and captured animals.
A food shortages, in particular acornsthis year led bears, whose population is booming in the archipelago, to venture into cities, while the depopulation of rural areas increases the boundaries between forests and urban areas, according to researchers.
According to , the government estimates that the total bear population be currently superior a 54.000 animals. “The size of the population exceeds the mountain capacity”, he explains to AFP Naoki Ohnishiresearcher at the Japan Forestry Research Institute.
“Every day, bears invade residential areas in the region and their impact is expanding,” said Deputy Secretary of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, Fumitoshi Sato. “The answer to the bear problem It’s an urgent issue”.
Winter will now bring some reliefbecause the bears go into hibernation, which will eventually reduce incursions — but the threat persists.
“It’s like living on a bear safari”, he confesses Hajime NakaeProfessor of Medicine at Akita University Hospital, who has been treating injuries caused by these animals for 30 years. “We are witnessing a catastrophe”.
