Bratislava/Strba, Aug 18 (CTK) – The Slovak state will give the municipal authorities 1.5 million euros for bear-resistant garbage containers and for the introduction of other measures to prevent possible encounters of people and bears in the Tatra Mountains, Environment Minister Laszlo Solyom said yesterday.
“It is not a solution to ask the ministry to permit the shooting of dozens of bears without having the special containers. The risky situations must be prevented,” Solyom said.
The town of Vysoke Tatry declared an emergency situation over the high occurrence of bears in April. Further repeated incidents involving bears made the town hall apply for the permit to kill 20 bears that have been moving close to settlements, including the most popular sport and tourist resorts Strbske Pleso and Tatranska Lomnica.
The Environment Ministry said the solution mainly lies in changing the ways of handling communal waste that attracts bears to inhabited areas. Special closable boxes for communal waste will be installed so that bears cannot feed on the waste.
Tatra National Park (TANAP) director Pavol Majko said previously the problem with bears started in the High Tatras in 2010.
Majko said the bears only make their life simpler by feeding on communal waste since they could definitely find enough feed in the wild now.
He said the bear-resistant garbage containers have been used in the Scandinavian countries, Canada and the United States.
“This year, the situation was dramatic in the Vysoke Tatry town, too. The bears stopped being shy and then entered the town during daytime. One shooting was unavoidable,” Majko said.
