By Chandra Pandak
Tapjejung, Mar. 8: A bear trapped at Taplejung District Hospital has been safely released into the wild. The bear was rescued by a technical team of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) by darting it with anaesthesia on Sunday and a day later, on Monday, it was released into a forest in the district.

The team led by Kiran Raj Rijal, a wildlife veterinary technician at the Biodiversity Conservation Center under the NTNC, made the bear unconscious by darting anaesthesia.The bear was taken to the Division Forest Office in Taplejung after being made unconscious and put in an iron cage. Veterinary technician Rijal informed that the adult female was an endangered Himalayan Black Bear. It approximately weighs about 70 kilograms and is five feet long.

The bear had entered the maternity ward of the district hospital on Thursday night. After the bear suddenly entered the hospital building, the police and its staff locked it inside the hospital.
Chief of the district hospital Dr. Soning Lama said that the bear had entered the hospital at a time when there were no service recipients in the hospital's maternity ward.

According to Lalit Yadav, Assistant Division Forest Officer at Taplejung Division Forest Office, the bear had to be locked inside the hospital room for three days in absence of technicians. Yadav said the bear had been rescued and has now been returned to its wild habitat.
The general public was terrified when the bear entered the hospital which is in the market area. For two or three days, the district hospital was crowded with people who came to watch the bear.