After days of attempts by forest officials to find out the unidentified animal killing sheep in villages under Cuttack district’s Niali block, a CCTV camera only found a striped hyena roaming in the area on Thursday night.
According to reports, a striped hyena was seen entering a village near a canal, much to the astonishment of the administration that has been saying that a wolf or a pack of wolves were killing the innocent ewes and lambs.
“After getting information that an animal went through this path, we searched for pugmarks. Moments later, we spotted a hyena moving there,” a forest official said.
Adding to the panic, two more sheep were killed and two others injured by the unidentified creature at Baharana village, 15 km from Niali. The two sheep were killed in a similar way as other sheep were recently killed.
In protest, Baharana villagers detained Niali Forester Srikanta Behera and three others who had gone to the village to take stock of the situation.
The personnel were later rescued by police after much persuasion. The mob relented only when some experts from Nandankanan zoo began a massive search operation to catch the killer animals.
The Nandankanan zoo team arrived in the area with cages, nets and CCTV cameras and began a massive search operation to track the wild animals. Sources said cages with baits are placed at vantage locations.
Similarly, nets are also spread near the forest areas to catch the killer animals.
On Wednesday, one sheep was killed and nine others were injured in Gobindapada villager following which irate locals had blocked Niali-Phulnakhara road by burning tyres.
According to reports, about 150 sheep have been killed by the unidentified creature in Niali area during the last two months. Panic-stricken locals are spending sleepless nights and guarding the area armed with sticks and torches to nab the killer.