The Uttar Pradesh forest department has sought shoot-on-sight permission from the state government after failing to quell wolf attacks in Bahraich district.
The forest department has deployed over 30 teams and set up multiple traps across Kaisarganj and Mahsi tehsils to catch the wolves that are roaming the villages and killing people and livestock almost every day. A ballpark estimate puts the number of killer wolves on the prowl in hamlets along the catchment area of the Ghaghara river at 10.
“We tried every trick to catch the wolves. Experts were also deployed here. But the situation is worsening with each passing day. After exhausting all options, we have sought permission to shoot on sight because the wolves have killed four children in the
last two weeks,” Kaisarganj forest ranger Omkar Nath Yadav said.
A wolf which was trapped in the Manjhara Taukali panchayat area on Thursday tore the net and escaped. Villagers launched a dharna against the forest department, prompting district magistrate Akshay Tripathi to inspect the area and assure the villagers of “a solution soon”.
“We have put up 1,390 electric street lights and 61 solar lights in the affected areas,” Tripathi said.
However, the villagers claim that the wolves have grown bolder and are targeting kids and livestock even during the day.
A wolf had dragged away eight-year-old Anikesh from near his house at Devanathpurva village under the Manjhara Taukali panchayat to an agricultural field about 200 metres away on Thursday afternoon. It dumped the child and bolted away when the villagers came to his rescue.
Every monsoon, floodwaters breach the Adampur Rewali and Belha Behrauli embankments along the Ghaghara and inundate around 200 low-lying villages and forests along the riverbanks.
The wolves, which usually hide in caves they dig in sandy soil on the outskirts of forests, are pushed inside the jungle by the floodwaters. However, the fear of being hunted by bigger animals prompts them to stray into villages when the water recedes but the soil in forest peripheries is still wet.