Uttar Pradesh forest department shooters tracked and shot a wolf during a rescue operation in Bahraich district after it allegedly abducted a one-year-old girl from her home, though the child is yet to be traced, officials said.
Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav said the incident occurred around 3.30 am at Kaiserganj tehsil when the wolf took away Ramkumar’s daughter Arvi from the verandah where she was sleeping with her mother.
Forest teams launched an overnight search using drones and trained shooters, but dense fog hampered operations. After visibility improved on Saturday afternoon, the search was intensified and the wolf was spotted near a riverbank in Godhiya village, where it was shot dead.
The girl remains missing, with teams combing riverbanks and nearby sugarcane fields. Officials said there were no earlier reports of wolf movement in the village, though Mallahanpurwa, about 8 km away, has seen multiple attacks, including one on December 7 in which a four-month-old child was killed.
Since September 9, wolf attacks in several villages of Bahraich district have claimed 11 lives, including nine children and an elderly couple, while at least 32 people have been injured.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on September 27 directed the concerned officials to safely rescue the wolves or shoot them if they cannot be captured.
Since then, a large-scale operation involving experts and shooters from other districts and states has been launched in which four wolves have been killed so far.