Panicked by the relentless wolf attacks, the villagers of Bahraich are trying homespun methods of resistance — with little success.
Several families in the fishing hamlets of Manjhara Taukali panchayat threw their seine nets around their huts as protection against the wolves, inspired by the net traps put up by the foresters to snare the beasts.
But for a pack whose members recently chewed through one of the forest department’s far sturdier nets, the fishing nets offered little resistance.
“I had fixed a net around my house on Tuesday but the wolves damaged it early on Thursday morning,” Dulara Nishad, 55, said. “We saw pugmarks in front of our house.”
She showed multiple scratch marks on the earth, indicating at least two wolves had come looking for prey.
It appears that a wooden barricade the family had put up outside the door thwarted the animals, and they left without damage to people or livestock.
Fisherman Om Prakash Nishad, 30, cut open his net and used it to ring-fence his hut with the help of bamboo sticks, but the wolves destroyed it.
“The wolves are not only killing or injuring us, they are making us poorer,” he said.
Om Prakash said most of the fishermen of Manjhara Taukali, a mixed-caste panchayat of 2,000-plus households living on the banks of the Ghaghara, had used their fishing nets to try and protect themselves only for the wolves to damage them.
“We need to buy new nets,” he said. A net costs ₹1,000 to ₹10,000.
Former panchayat member Jitendra Yadav said illegal sand mining was a key reason for the wolf attacks.
The wolves’ normal habitat is on the fringes of the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, about 30km from Manjhara Taukali, for they fear the bigger beasts that live deeper inside the forests, he said.
“During the rains, the wolves leave the forests because of waterlogging and live among the tall munj grass in the sand on the riverbank,” Yadav said.
“But the grass got destroyed because of (illegal) sand mining.”
So, the wolves moved into the crop fields.
Unsafe homes
First, the wolves — normally nocturnal animals — adapted themselves to attacking people in the daylight when they were less alert. Now even homes seem unsafe.
Ranjan Nishad, 8, was eating at his home in the Gopinathpurva hamlet of Manjhara Taukali late on Wednesday afternoon when a wolf entered the house and dragged him away.
The child had been dragged about 100 metres by the time the villagers heard his cries and ran to save him. He has been admitted to a community health centre.
A wolf later injured a goat in Jagannathpurva hamlet and a dog in Peshkarpurva hamlet.
Some villagers have raised machans (scaffoldings) near their homes to sleep on or keep a watch on the wolves.
Wolves have killed six people and over 20 livestock since September, while injuring 30-odd villagers.
Leopard attack
A leopard attacked and injured four motorcycle riders on the Bichhiya-Girijapuri Road along the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Bahraich on Wednesday.
Ghulam Hafiz, 40, a farmer from Bardia, said: “I was going to a doctor with my mother Safikun Begum, 60, and niece Khatiza, 10. The leopard suddenly came out of the forest and pounced on us and we fell from the motorcycle.”
Hafiz has a leg injury. As the trio tried to fight the leopard off, they suffered lacerations on their arms and legs.
The leopard later attacked Ramu Singh, 55, a bank employee riding a motorbike on the same road.
Forest ranger Ashish Gaur said: “The pugmarks suggest the same leopard attacked them. We are patrolling the area.”