AKITA — About 50 police officers began patrolling a mountainous area in Kazuno, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday to prevent bamboo shoot hunters and other people from entering woods after a string of likely bear attacks on humans.
The bodies of four people apparently attacked by a bear have been found since late May in the northern Japan area where the victims in their 60s and 70s were hunting edible plants including wild bamboo sprouts called nemagaridake.
The officers set up checkpoints at seven locations on roads leading to the area where the bodies were found. They also drove vehicles to see if anybody was in the area.
“The police cannot block everybody who wants to enter the mountain. We hope people will not enter dangerous areas and protect themselves,” said Hajime Takahashi, head of the Kazuno Police Station.
Local hunters killed a 1.3-meter-long Asian female black bear in the area June 10. Human remains and bamboo shoots were found from the stomach of the animal, local authorities said.
Takeshi Komatsu, a veterinarian with the municipal government of Kitaakita in Akita, said earlier that because the attacks appear to have occurred in a limited area over a short period of time, all four people were likely killed by the same bear.
courtesy:- JapanToday
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/police-patrol-to-keep-people-from-woods-after-bear-attacks-in-japan
