A bear mauled a teen to death. Will a cull solve Romania’s bear problem?

The standard advice is to make noise in bear territory as you walk. If you encounter a bear, stand quiet and still, then back slowly away. As with a dog, the worst thing you can do is run away, as it is sure to follow.

At the base of the footpath which Diana climbed that day, it becomes clear why the bear was on the path. Three large municipal waste bins, the remains of a cage around one, stand open to the sky. One has been tipped over, and there is rotting food, tins and plastic strewn over a wide area.

Around 8,000 bears live in the arc of the Carpathian mountains, one of Europe’s last wilderness regions, their habitat constantly eroded by logging, the spread of towns, and tourism.

In the nearby town of Busteni, at seven in the evening, I get a bear alert on my phone, and rush to the scene, a residential street.

Angry locals say they’re afraid to walk home at night, because of the bears.

The police arrive, and the locals harangue them for doing too little. “But what do you want us to do?” asks a young officer. “Keep us safe!” shouts one man.

I get through to the hunter who shot the bear who killed Diana, but he says he will not speak until the inquest is over.

Former Environment Minister Barna Tanczos is the author of the new law, passed by the Chamber of Deputies and approved by President Klaus Iohannis in July, that allows people to kill up to 500 bears over the next 18 months .

“The bear population is increasing daily, monthly, yearly in Romania, so if we don’t do something we will have thousands, tens of thousands of bears, which is not good for humans, and not good for the bears,” Mr Tanczos said.

“So we have to establish control, we need a balance in human – bear relations, and conflicts, and contacts.”