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Asiatic black bear has long been in conflict with human beings crop raiding is a major cause of this conflict frequently noted in South Asia. Crops raided by black bears affected by temporal, spatial and anthropogenic attributes. Insight in this conflict and its mitigation is vital for the conservation of this threatened species. Present study aimed to evaluate crop raiding by black bears in the mountainous region of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Field surveys were carried out to observe spatial and temporal crop raiding features between 2015-2020 and data gathered using designed questionnaires randomly tailored in villages nearby the forests. Results revealed that maize was the sole crop raided by black bears. A total of 28-acre area was raided by black bear in the fall season (Aug-November) resulting in a damage of 51 metric tons, whole raiding was carried out at night. Each respondent received crop damage on 0.09 acre with a loss of 0.17 metric ton yield. Crop quantity and area were significantly correlated to each other. District Neelum shared 49% of the total crop loss, while 47% of the maize was raided at the altitudinal range of 2100-2500 m. crop raiding was highly significantly ( χ 2 = 1174.64 ; d f = 308 ;   p < 0.01 ) dependent upon distance to the forest. Linear regression revealed that maize quantity was determined by area, time and the total field area. Farmers faced 3.8 million PKRs loss due to crop damage by black bears. Despite the huge loss, the majority (23%) of the respondents did not respond to the query on mitigation measures indicating a poor adaptation of preventive measures. Preferred strategy to avoid crop damage was making noise (27.8%) when bears attacked their crops. A start of compensation scheme to the farmers is recommended that will have turned their negative attitude into a positive one toward the wildlife and black bear particularly. Study provides a new insight in human-bear conflict, particularly in spatial and temporal context of crop raiding in AJ&K.

Background: Incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and the frequency of obesity is increasing globally. In literature, relationship between excessive body weight and bad prognostic features of PTC is still debatable. In this study, we aimed to explore the association of obesity with high risk pathological features of PTC in a population treated by total thyroidectomy +/- neck dissection., Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients at Aga Khan University Hospital from January 2013 to December 2014, who underwent total thyroidectomy +/- neck dissection due to PTC. Patients were grouped according to World Health Organization (WHO) classification of BMI. They were categorized into two groups, i.e. normal (BMI= 18.5 - 24.9 kg/m2) and obese (BMI = 30 kg/m2) as none of our patients lie in underweight and overweight category. Pathological features i.e. T-stage, multifocality, bilaterality, extrathyroidal extension, vascular invasion and N-stage were assessed. All tumors were staged according to TNM staging system proposed by 2010 American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval was used to examine the association between BMI ∧ pathological characteristics of PTC., Results: A total of 53 patients were treated for PTC in two-years period. There were 38 female and 15 male patients. Twenty-eight patients had BMI in normal while twenty-five in obese category. Patients who were in obese category had a significantly greater risk of having a multifocal tumor (OR=5.55, p-value=0.02) and bilaterality (OR=6.54, p-value=0.01) compared to normal weight patients. No positive associations were identified between BMI and extrathyroidal extension, high T-stage, vascular invasion and N-stage., Conclusion: Obesity is not associated with high risk pathological features such as extrathyroidal extention, high T-stage, vascular invasion and N-stage in PTC. Although it has been correlated with multifocal and bilateral tumors in this retrospective study, the presence of these factors alone is not adequate to support the association conclusively.