New Delhi: Two wolves among a pack of six, who mauled eight children and one woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich over the last two months, continue to remain elusive and are yet to be captured by the foresters. The terror they have unleashed still haunts the villagers here.
‘Operation Bhediya’ was launched by the Uttar Pradesh forest department. The officials not only used drone but also used soft toys soaked in children’s urine as a bait to ensnare them. “The natural human scent may attract the wolves closer to the traps,” Divisional Forest Officer Ajit Pratap Singh was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
What is their feeding pattern?
Human-animal conflicts are not new to the Terai region, but wolf attacks in these villages have happened reportedly for the first time. Even though wolves are carnivorous, they mostly stay away from attacking humans. The risk of wolves attacking or pouncing on people is pretty low. Their territories are well-demarcated by them. They hunt a prey and feed on it for a long period of time. International Wolf Centre (IWC) says that the wolves live under constant ‘feast or famine’ mode – meaning they gorge on a huge quantity for some time and then go without hunting for a long time.
According to a study undertaken by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (2002-2020), only 26 fatal wolf attacks occurred worldwide during that period, and out of these, four happened in India as the victims died because they contracted rabies. The study pointed out that the risk of wolf attacks was “above zero, but far too low to calculate”.
Why did they become man-eaters?
The pertinent question is if the risk of wolf attack is so low, why did they pounce on humans in Bharaich?
1. Habituation – Habituation could be one of the key factors behind it. Usually, wolves don’t come out of their marked territory. However, if they start living near human settlements, they become familiar with the place and their fear of humans goes away, which makes them prey on humans.
2. Loss of habitat or inadequate food – If there is crunch in its sources of food in its actual habitat, it may look out for it and stray into human habitations. Wolves can also pounce on humans if they perceive threat and have to hunt for food.
3. Cross breeding – Biologist Yadvendradev Jhala has been reportedly quoted as saying that cross breeding of dogs and wolves may also make the wolves become more comfortable in human habitations and thus they attack them, mostly the children who are softer targets, without any difficulty or inhibition. IWC data till 2020 indicates that there were 4,400–7,100 wolves in India. The Indian wolf is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
