Bahraich: UP Forest Department captures fifth ‘killer’ wolf, search on for last wolf

Bahraich (Uttar Pradesh) [India], September 10 (ANI): The Uttar Pradesh Forest Department on Tuesday captured the fifth ‘killer’ wolf, while one remains elusive. The wolves had been behind several attacks on villagers in Bahraich.

The Uttar Pradesh Forest Department is taking the Wolf to a rescue shelter.

“We have caught the fifth wolf…One is left; we will catch that wolf also soon…We are trying our best every day to catch the left wolf,” Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajeet Pratap Singh told ANI.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajeet Pratap Singh told ANI that the captured wolf is a female and added that the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department operation has not concluded yet and a search operation is underway to capture the remaining ‘killer’ wolf.

“The entire operation had been ongoing since yesterday, but the operation to capture (the wolf) started around 5:30-6 am and completed around 6:15-6:30 am…This was the first operation in which drone was not used to capture the wolf, but it was being operated to find out the next location (of the wolf) in case it escaped. It used to run away upon spotting the drone, so we did not use it…One more wolf remains (to be caught), we even spotted it…We are alert. We will heighten vigilance in the village…Our operation has not concluded, we will get to work now and perhaps we will have the second success today itself. This one is a female, the one that escaped is a male,” Singh told ANI.

Renu Singh, Chief Forest Conservator of Central Zone said, “This is a huge success. Four wolves were captured earlier and one more was caught today. So, we have rescued 5 wolves so far. DFO and his team have done this. This is very interesting because we received information yesterday that it lifted a goat in Nathuwapur. Tracing its pug marks, we set up nets and waited because the rescue operation could not have taken place at night. We carried out the operation in morning and captured it early morning…We changed our strategy because it was changing its behaviour. Earlier, we used to fly the drone right on top of a wolf and pick it. But they got smarter and started running away as soon as they spotted the drone. This time, we located, saw the pug marks but we stopped the drone in final operation…We then picked it up…One more wolf remains and we will make all the efforts to rescue it at the earliest…It will be sent to a zoo…”

The Uttar Pradesh Forest Department had initiated “Operation Bhediya” to apprehend a pack of wolves responsible for recent attacks in 25-30 villages under Mahsi tehsil in the Bahraich range of Bahraich Forest Division.

Earlier, the Forest Department in Bahraich had installed snap cameras at most of the probable habitats of wolves in the area to monitor any movement by them which would also help the forest department to learn about the movement of the wolves in order to catch them.

The forest department has installed these snap cameras to capture the images of the wolves. Three snap cameras have also been installed in Sikandarpur village around six caves, which local villagers claim to be the habitat of the wolves.

9 people have been killed and more than 40 people have been injured until now due to the attacks by the man-eater wolves in various villages of Bahraich.