The Uttar Pradesh Forest department officials captured a female wolf from the Sissaya village in Bahraich district at 6:30 on Tuesday morning.
This is the fifth wolf to be successfully captured by the Forest department out of a pack of six wolves.
The captured female wolf is a sub adult. With its capture, one more wolf is left to be captured by the Forest department. The pack of six wolves had killed 10 people and injured more than 40 in the Bahraich district in the last one and a half months.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Sanjay Pathak, who is monitoring the operations, while giving the details said, “We got information that the wolf was sighted in Sissaya village and a goat was lifted from there. Our team reached the village and carried out a survey while scanning the area using a thermal drone and got a picture of the wolf. The team cordoned off the entire area with traps and was successful in capturing the wolf.”
Pathak said that only one wolf was left to be captured and most probably it was a male but they were not too sure.
“People are claiming that it is a lame wolf but this cannot be said with certainty because sometimes the wolf portrays itself in this manner to mislead the prey. They sometimes also pose as if they are dead to catch the prey,” he said.
He further stated that operations would continue to catch the last wolf out of the pack of six. “Left alone, it has no conservation value. Besides, the villagers will also be relieved if all the wolves are caught and that will prevent them from blaming the wolf for any attack,” he stated.
DFO Ajeet Singh said that the wolf caught was most likely to be transported to the Gorakhpur Zoo. “We were able to trace its location on Monday evening itself because due to the rains the pug marks had become visible. Thereafter we began the operations at 5 in the morning and caught the animal by 6:30 am,” he said. Singh said that the same strategy of prevention of attacks and location hunting would be carried out to trap the remaining animal.
Pathak admitted that with the water receding more area would open out for the wild animals.
“It is possible that the wolves got trapped towards the side of the humans because of the rains. It could be a chance that the wolf picked up a child and found it an easy prey. With the spaces opening up the wolves will find its animal prey to feed upon,” he said.
He said that most of the man-animal conflicts happened that way. “They are cyclical in nature and ultimately settle down. Out of the hundred cases that were reported by villagers at the command centre in Bahraich, 95 of them were untrue. On Sunday night we were informed about the wolf picking up a dog which we found to be a false alarm because no wolf has ever picked up a dog. A video was also passed on to us by the villagers in the Sikandarpur area where they claimed that the wolf was present but we could make out that this was not the video of the same area,” he said.
Pathak admitted that there was a lot of confusion with the general public mistaking a jackal for a wolf, the former being in good numbers.
He said that they were trying to spread awareness amongst the people and they were distributing pamphlets and banners which showed what the wolf looked like. “It is difficult to distinguish a wolf from far away but it is the face and the tail through which it can be recognised,” he added.
Pathak said that the operations would continue and the patrolling as well as location hunting would be carried out until it was certain that the attacks had ceased.
“It is important for the people to sleep indoors and keep the doors bolted. The children should not go for open defecation in the morning as well as in the evening,” he added.
He said that unfortunately the people do not follow the advice given by the Forest department. “Despite regular advice given by the forest team when it visits the villages one can see people sleeping outside,” he added.
