Children honoured with state bravery award following bear attack response

Three children from the Chamoli district in Uttarakhand have been honoured with the Chief Minister's State Children's Bravery Award after responding to a bear attack at their school. ETV Bharat reported that each child received a cash award of Rs 51,000 transferred directly to their bank accounts. While ETV Bharat specified three children were honoured for the school bear incident, reporting from Lokmat Times, Republic World, Devdiscourse, and Big News Network noted that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami honoured a total of six children across the state with bravery awards. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

The incident occurred on December 22, 2025, at around 9:30 am on the premises of the GIC UPS Harishankar school, according to ETV Bharat. A bear entered the school campus while students were engaged in their regular morning activities. Class 6 student Aarav Singh Pundir was attacked by the bear while disposing of garbage. [1]

During the attack, Aarav Singh Pundir fought to protect himself, while fellow student Divya intervened to rescue him. At the same time, student Deepika took action to safeguard nine other children by securing them inside a school classroom, ETV Bharat reported. [1]

Uttarakhand is a state situated in northern India, divided into the two main divisions of Garhwal and Kumaon, with Dehradun functioning as its winter capital. [8]