Ooty: Sloth bears are spreading panic in the tea town of Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu and time doesn't matter for them. Day and night, they roam around the town, break into shops and houses, gorge on chocolates, drain out honey barrels and scare away plantation workers. The bears are frequently spotted in Coonoor town premises, villages of Kinnakkorai and Manjoor.

Residents said that bears have caused damage to around 20 houses in the past few months. Of these, ten cases were reported in Coonoor town alone. Ray Kurian, a resident, said the animal shattered three of her doors and reached up to the bedroom. In another incident, a sloth bear chased a girl when she was walking on the road near Kotagiri town. Though the forest department had put cage traps, the bears have steered clear of them. In January, a plantation worker was also killed in a suspected attack by a sloth bear.

Councillor V Rajanagam, representing Jagathala, a village near Coonoor, told Onmanorama that people are scared of even stepping out of their houses, due to repeated attacks. "Even inside a house, you are not safe. One day, a bear broke into a chocolate production unit and ate chocolates. "When the owner came in the morning, he suspected that some thieves might have broken into the unit, but while searching the CCTV visuals, he found that it was a sloth bear," he said.

"Due to the increasing wildlife attacks, people are leaving the hills to the plains. Such a high presence of bears is unique only in this region," Rajanagam said. Experts also pointed out that the bear population increased manifold in the last few years.

However, forest officials say that honey kept in homes often attracts bears. Many women in the region are engaged in honey collection, which attracts the bears.

The sloth bears are fond of honeycombs and termite mounds. Ooty Divisional Forest Officer S Goutham told Onmanorama that incidents of sloth bear attacks have been reported in the region for quite some time. "We have not conducted any exclusive census for bears in the region. Many incidents have been reported recently, and we have been dealing with them. First, we launch an operation to drive back the animal to the forests, and later, if the mission fails, we capture them using cage traps," he said.

Recently, the forest department captured two bears that spread fear in human habitats. But residents said that instead of keeping them in captivity, the forest department released them inside the forests in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.