To control the gradual rise in the population of the black bears in New Jersey, the state's Fish and Game Council has been planning a policy that will give way to a bear hunting program.

The hunt will be scheduled for 6 days in December. New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie has extended full support to the plan, putting an end to the ban on bear hunting.

However, the Acting Commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Protection, Bob Martin has said that the policy cannot be implemented without complete public consensus.

"We do have what I think is a lot of excellent scientific data collected over several years ... validating the growth in our bear population", Martin said.

As per the estimations of the state biologists, the number of bears in the 580-square-mile region in Sussex and Passaic counties has surged by 62% from 2002 to 2007.

The proposal of the hunting policy followed the incident wherein a bear was killed by a pet dog.

The residents have been complaining that the Government is not taking much stringent steps to curb the problems they face due to the bears entering their residential areas.

"Hunt or no hunt, we will never resolve bear problems until we deal with trash", said Jeff Tittel, Director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter.