Environmentalists in Italy have urged authorities in the northern province of Trentino not to capture or kill a brown bear that attacked a man on Friday.

Daniele Maturi, 38, was reportedly foraging for mushrooms in the woods near Pinzolo in the heart of the Dolomite mountains when he was set upon by Daniza, a female bear nursing her cubs. Maturi was bitten and scratched, and suffered injuries to his wrist, leg, knee and back during the attack.

"She seemed crazy," he told local television station TNN after being released from hospital. "She chased me. She took me with one paw on my back; she made a hole in my back. I was on the ground and then she jumped on top of me."

The vice-president of the autonomous province of Trentino, Alessandro Olivi, has signed an order for Daniza to be captured, a step the authorities believe is necessary to guarantee public safety. She is already reported to be under surveillance.

Olivi said the bear's life would only be at risk should she pose "an imminent, serious and not avoidable danger for the operators [of the capture] and third parties".

But as well as prompting a social media backlash, the proposal – accompanied by the hashtag #iostocondaniza (#I'mwithDaniza) – sparked anger and concern among many environmentalists.

Caterina Rosa Marino of the League for the Abolition of Hunting (Lac) disputed the need for the capture, arguing that Maturi had stumbled across Daniza in "the only [situation] which is really dangerous: encountering a mother with her cubs".

Massimiliano Rocco of WWF Italia, meanwhile, was quoted as telling Il Messaggero: "Capturing Daniza now, preventing her from raising her cubs, would be an historic defeat."

Daniza is part of a reintroduction scheme known as Life Ursus, which is viewed as one of the most successful conservation efforts in Europe. Between 1999 and 2001 10 brown bears were brought from the Slovenian wilds to the Dolomites in northern Italy, where they have since thrived.

But the effort is far from being beloved by all. Among local farmers, in particular, it is loathed: livestock including sheep, goats and lambs have been killed by the roaming bears. The right-wing Northern League has repeatedly called for the scheme to be ended.

As he displayed his bandaged limbs, slashed trousers and damaged boots for the cameras, Maturi, from Pinzolo, said he thought the scheme was dangerous. "It only needs to happen once," he said. "With me it went OK. If it had been a woman or someone else … I don't know if it would have been OK because it's really brutal."