thiruvananthapuram a wild bear that strayed into the compound of a house at vellanadu at midnight targeting the chicken coop fell into a 15ft well and died almost 12 hours later after the forest department and fireforce botched up the rescue scores of onlookers crowded around the well trying to get a piece of the action also prevented what should normally have been a straightforward rescue attemptthe bear fell into the well of a vellanad resident vijayan of sreevilasam at kannambally around 1255 am and the house owners were alarmed to find a bear in the well in the morning the rapid response team of the forest department were informed and they reached the spot to rescue the animal at 855amfor hours it had held on to the side step of the well the forest rescue team planned on tranquilizing the animal and hauling it up to safety a huge crowd had assembled around the well and the authorities did not want to risk raising the animal fully conscious a net was laid out and the team hoped that it would stay put in the net the plan however fell through the first shot fired by the veterinarian of zoo dr jacob alexander was not on target the second shot pierced the rump the net was being pulled up when the animal slipped out of the net into the water as it began to lose consciousness the head popped up briefly and the bear drowned the bear remained under the water for nearly 40 minutes till its dead body was taken out the fire force and the forest department could go nowhere near the bear in the well as they had erred in gauging the depth of the wellit was then that the rescue officers realised that the well was over 10 feet deep from where the bear was netted later water was pumped out by the fire and rescue team and the animal was lifted up at 1056 amthe animal was shifted to a hospital in a cage but its life could not be saved dr jacob alexander was apologetic and termed the incident unfortunatewe thought that the water level was just one foot down we were hoping that it would stay above the water when it fell asleep after the bear drowned we realized that the well was very deep and we could not find the animal he saidthe thiruvananthapuram chapter of people for animals has alleged that there were grave mistakes in the rescue missiondemanding action against the officials the association representatives said that they will approach the court the association alleged that the precautions to be taken before darting an animal near a water body were not takenafter all the animal was shot by the doctor of thiruvananthapuram zoo instead of an authorized and trained doctor of the veterinary departmentthe forest department faced scathing criticism for tranquilizing the bear without taking any precaution forest minister ak saseendran said that an inquiry in the incident will be