Since mid-April, wolves have been terrorizing about 30 Indian villages in Bahraich district, Uttar Pradesh state, near the border with Nepal. The worst-hit cities in northern India are Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal. So far, 10 people have died, including nine children, and 34 others have been injured. The youngest victim is a one-year-old child and the oldest is a 45-year-old woman.
The panic broke out especially in Mahali Tehsil of the district. Before this latest wave, between April 1993 and 1995, 80 children died, of whom only 20 were rescued from wolf attacks in Pratapgarh, Sultanpur and Jaunpur. Parts of Bahraich district have long been traditional habitats for these animals. Interestingly, wolves have a long history of predating on children, which is why the term ‘child theft’ has been coined for them. On Monday, a five-year-old boy was injured in a wolf attack in Mahasi Tehsil of Uttar Pradesh.
The State Forest Department has launched the Operation Bhediyawho captured four of the six wolves in the pack. The two remaining members face 300 police officers and 200 forestersall equipped with drones, weapons and camera traps. Seven districts, including Bahraich, Barabanki, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Sultanpur and Katarniaghat, report Hindustan TimesThey sent teams.
The objective of the Operation Bhediya is to capture wolves, even though the Uttar Pradesh authorities have ordered to shoot to kill. Ajit Pratap SinghDivisional Forest Officer of Bahraich, assured that their elimination would be a last resort. He further explained that each team was equipped with a thermal drone camera to track them as well as the shooters from the police and forest services. They were even using colorful teddy bears soaked in children’s urine as bait to capture them, explains Hinduand also elephant droppings.
In order to determine which wolves were involved in the attacks, the forest service said: Printsent fecal samples from captured wolves transferred to zoos for DNA analysis to confirm whether any of them had eaten human body parts. There are a total of 157 zoos in India and, according to PETA, they are badly neglected.
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Indian wolves feed mainly on rodents, hares, antelopes and raccoons. So it is still unclear why they started “stealing children.” The wildlife historian Mahesh Rangarajan declared to Down to earth that the Wolf attacks on humans are a historical factThis is why they were heavily hunted during the British Raj (1858-1947). Rangarajan calculates that between 1871 and 1916 They killed more than 100,000 wolves. However, authorities have proposed two theories to explain the phenomenon.
The first focuses on the possibility that one of the remaining wolves was marginalized from the pelotonwhat drove him to attack, while the second explores the impact of heavy rains and flooding frequently caused by monsoons (which typically occur between April and September). This radically changes the landscape, potentially driving wolves to seek out food and water.
Similarly, the Indian wolf faces threats such as habitat lossTHE unregulated hunting and the loss of prey. It is important to remember that wolves are territorial and hunt at night. Although it is a protected species, They continue to be killed frequently because they are seen as predators of livestock. Indeed, in poor Indian villages, livestock are better protected than children, explains the BBC.
Why are wolves able to attack? This is because some villagers are so poor that they they don’t have doorsand the ones they have don’t have locks. Yadvebraev JhalaA wildlife expert, has advised against leaving children unsupervised in the affected villages. As recommended, they should sleep among adults, if the house is inadequate or unsafe, and be accompanied by an adult to the toilet at night, the BBC.
