Around 100 mayors and other officials from towns on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains protested on Tuesday to demand the removal of all bears, saying the re-introduction of the predators has threatened shepherds' livelihoods.

"There's no longer any place for bears," Henri Nayrou, council head for the Ariege area, told the gathering in Toulouse, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

"It's awful. We're going to have problems and I fear the worst," he said.

Shepherds and farmers have been up in arms since the government brought in two more brown bears from Slovenia last October, the latest since France began to re-populate around 20 years ago a species that had been hunted to the brink of extinction.

Around 50 bears now roam the mountains that separate France and Spain, mainly in the Ariege region.

Environmental activists say the animals are integral to preserving a fragile ecosystem, and are emblematic of a government plan announced in July to shore up biodiversity, which is under threat from human activity and climate change.

But local farmers say they are increasingly attacking their flocks, and that compensation is insufficient to staunch devastating financial losses.

"We're unanimous in demanding the removal of bears from the Ariege Pyrenees. This is a cry to the state: Hear us in Paris!" said Philippe Lacube, head of the Ariege chamber of agriculture.

Authorities say 214 requests for compensation have been lodged so far this year, up from 167 in the same period last year, and just 53 in 2015.

Around 640 sheep have been killed this year, mostly after plunging off cliffs while trying to flee bears.

"It's an exponential increase" as the bears multiply and expand into new areas, Lacube said.

The growing bear population, like a burgeoning wolf population, has become a source of bitter conflict pitting farmers against the authorities and animal rights activists.

Shepherds in particular fume at the government's suggestion to keep flocks locked up at night, saying it would end the traditional summer pasturing on the higher slopes.

Officials have increased compensation for killed livestock and pledged to halt bear re-introductions, unless one is killed by hunters or farmers trying to scare them away.

Crocodiles hunt in flooded Indian city
Vadodara, India (AFP) Aug 2, 2019 - Crocodiles hunted dogs in the flooded streets of the Indian city of Vadodara after it was battered by nearly 50 centimetres (20 inches) of rain in 24 hours leaving five people dead, police said Friday.

Waist-high water remained Friday in the Gujarat state city where the main railway station and most roads were closed by the freak deluge.

About 5,000 people were evacuated from their homes as water from the overflowing crocodile-infested Vishwamitri River spread through the city of 1.2 million people.

A video of one crocodile emerging from the flood to attack a dog went viral on social media. The reptile was caught by animal rights activists.

Police said other two other incidents involving crocodiles in populated areas were reported.

Many bridges over the river were closed, cutting off whole districts of the city.

Officials said two people were electrocuted and two labourers died when a wall weakened by the floods fell on them. The body of a 60-year-old man was found floating in the water but the cause of death was not immediately known.

Medical teams from other cities in the western state were to be sent to Vadodara to launch operations to contain infections and disease, officials said.

Power engineers were struggling in the floods to reconnect electricity supplies. Long queues of people formed outside food shops.

More than 250 people have died in monsoon floods across India in the past few weeks, with Assam and Bihar states in the north the worst hit.

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Plant roots began following gravity 350 million years ago
Washington (UPI) Aug 2, 2019
To make the transition from sea to land, plant roots had to learn to grow downward, to follow gravity. This ability, gravitropism, helped plants anchor to the soil and retrieve water and nutrients. New analysis of this vital adaptation suggests the ability first emerged roughly 350 million years ago. Scientists have studied gravitropism in flowering plants, but until now researchers had not surveyed root growth patterns across the entirety of the plant kingdom. The survey, published this ... read more