Bhawanipatna: A wild bear sneaked into human habitation triggering panic among locals at Amapani near Dharmagarh here in Kalahandi district on Wednesday night.
A video of the animal roaming around the Budharaja temple at Amapani is doing rounds on social media.
Locals who have sighted the animal said that it visited the temple on Wednesday night and moved around for one hour before leaving the place.
Later, it also strayed into the village area and went back to the nearby forest, a local said.
People said the bear entered human settlement in search of food. However, the animal did not attack anyone nor residents tried to tease it, they added.
In the video, the bear is seen walking in front of the temple gate. There were no priests present on the premises of the shrine, locals added.
Though the forest department officials are aware of the incident, they have not yet made any comments on the matter.
In August this year, a wild bear had strayed into human settlement in Bhawanipatna city and attacked one person. The incident had triggered panic among local residents.
A video of the animal attacking a man had also gone viral on social media. In the video, local people were seen trying to rescue the man by hitting the animal with sticks. Forest officials had tried hard to capture the bear by tranquilising it and later release it into the forest.
In 2012, a bear 'couple', who had frequented to Goddess Bhairav temple on the outskirts of Malkangiri town, had hogged the headlines. The animals had attracted the visitors as they used to come to the temple everyday just after sunset and stayed for quite some time. The passersby and visitors had also fed them with bananas, biscuits and coconuts. However, the wild animals had not attacked anyone rather they had turned a source of entertainment for the locals and passersby.