KARACHI: Wild animals don’t normally hurt human beings intentionally, says wildlife expert Vaqar Zakaria.
Yet, one swipe of the arm from a brown bear can inflict serious damage, even if their intent is not to harm.
Following a brown bear attack on singer Quratulain Baloch (QB) while she was filming in Deosai, Mr Zakaria told Dawn that although the local brown bear isn’t as big as its Alaskan cousin, its claws — typically around two inches long — are razor-sharp and capable of tearing flesh with ease.
“Maybe the bear thought there was food nearby, and the singer’s first reaction — screams for help — triggered the aggression,” he speculated, calling it a “rare and isolated incident”.
Dr Shafqat Hussain, Professor of Anthropology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, was not too surprised by the bear attack. “Though unfortunate, it was bound to happen sooner or later,” he said.
In wake of singer QB’s close call with a brown bear in Deosai, experts stress that people should never feed wild animals; blame human intervention for wildlife losing its ‘natural shyness’
Known for his work on snow leopard conservation in Gilgit-Baltistan, he warned that since bears are attracted to food which is available in human camps “more is to come if we continue glamping at Deosai”.
When QB was approached for comment, she requested “privacy for the healing process”.
“To ask a traumatised person to stay still, upon seeing a grizzly visitor inside the tent, is not very realistic — but that’s the best thing to do,” Zakaria noted.
According to him, TikTok videos, selfies, and a taste for human food are some of the reasons why wild animals lose their natural shyness and start venturing closer to human settlements.
Above all, he blames the people for encroaching into territories that have historically been the habitat of wild animals.
There are fundamental differences between humans and wildlife, he says. “Animals attack or kill for a reason; humans often do so for none. Bears, almost never.”
Yet one key similarity remains — unpredictability.
“You never really know what might happen, or what could trigger ‘wild’ behaviour. We simply don’t know them well enough to anticipate it,” he said.
Human encroachment
The Deosai Plains, spanning about 3,600 sq km between Skardu and Astore in the Karakoram range, were declared a national park by the government in 1993. It is home to brown bears, marmots (squirrels), foxes, wolves, over two dozen species of birds and a vibrant variety of alpine flowers.
“If you cast a line in the streams, you will catch a fish within five minutes, and the water is clean enough for drinking,” Zakaria says.
To manage this unique ecosystem, the Islamabad-based Himalayan Wildlife Foundation (IWF) was asked to develop a management plan by the Gilgit-Baltistan Wildlife Department, marking core zones, grazing areas, camping sites and more.
As its co-founder, Zakaria has spent over three decades studying brown bears, tracking their movements, population, diet and behaviour — not just in Deosai but around the world — and continues to collaborate with international bear experts.
“In 1993, around 20 jeeps would visit the park every day in summers,” he recalled. By the year 2000, traffic had picked up. Today, up to 500 vehicles enter the park daily during peak season, he added.
“We need to accept that humans are occupying their territory, not the other way around,” he said.
He also blames people, tourists and locals alike, for altering and even degrading habitats — cutting forests, increasing livestock and then leaving them unattended in open grazing areas, providing easy prey for hungry wild predators.
Emphasising the dangers of habituation, Zakaria said Deosai marmots were routinely being fed by visitors. “You never, never, feed wild animals; that’s the cardinal rule!”
The HWF had originally advised that no permanent roads or permanent structures be built inside the park, to avoid the kind of irreversible environmental damage seen in Naran, Kaghan and more recently in Nathia Gali.
“But now with traffic hundred times higher, we may need hard top roads to reduce dust, noise and vehicles getting stuck in snow and for them not to go astray and remain in the designated area.
He also stressed the need for better campsite management, garbage disposal and upgraded restaurants, adding that education will have a key role to play in any betterment.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2025
