New Delhi: Nights have turned increasingly nightmarish for the last one-and-a-half months in over dozen villages under the Mahsi Tehsil area in UP’s Bahraich district. In these villages, which are located in the Terai region of the Ghaghra Riverbed, people are in the throes of horror as the menace of wolves has gripped the region. These predators have mauled nine people, mostly children, between the age groups of 1 to 8 years, since March 2024.
On Tuesday, District Forest Officer (DFO) Bahraich, Ajit Singh, said that a pack of six wolves was seen in CCTV footage, out of which three wolves had been captured. According to recent reports, the fourth wolf was tranquillised and captured. The region is no stranger to animal attacks. Back in the 1990s, hyena attacks in Lakhimpur Khiri had sent chill down the spine of villagers and foresters alike. Down the years, there has been no respite from the animal attacks and the man-animal conflict.
Why have these confrontations taken roots in the region? Why is there no end to these conflicts? This can be attributed mainly to encroachment of humans in forest zones for farming. The core forest area has also dwindled because illegal penetration of humans into tiger reserves and wild sanctuaries. As a result, the predators are left with little to prey on. The absence of enough preys forces the predators to venture out of their habitat and stray into human settlements, which originally was actually marked as theirs. And they come face to face with the human population and confrontations take place.
Factors behind man-animal conflict
The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) comprises 15 protected areas primarily set up to protect the tiger population. These include two Level I Tiger Conservation Units (TCUs) — Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki and Rajaji-Corbett — and two Level II TCUs — Dudwa-Kailali and Shuklaphanta-Kishanpur. The buffer zone and the core zone are not properly demarcated in some of them. Most of the conflicts have been reported from Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary over the years. The geography of these places is conducive to both humans and animals, as Mohana River and Suheli flow here. This contributes to the growing encounters here.
Due to the marked spike in the stand-offs, the UP announced death due to a man-animal conflict as a ‘State-Declared Disaster’. The government also declared a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the deceased’s family if he/she died due to a attack by tiger, elephant and seven other wild animals, including wolf, lion, hyena, rhino, crocodile and wild boar.
However, man-animal conflict is not the only problem. Deaths of wild animals due to electrocution and negligence is also a key issue. A tiger which reportedly developed physical deformities at Dudhwa killed five people in just over a month, before it was shifted to the zoo in Lucknow. This was not an isolated case. And putting the animal is also not the solution. It is imperative that communities living near the reserves and sanctuaries are made aware about animal’s nature, and how to tackle it if it strays into human habitation.