Uttar Pradesh Forest Department on Tuesday morning, September 10, captured the fifth wolf in Bahraich and is now taking it to a rescue shelter of the Forest Department. So far, 5 wolves have been caught. There is one more left.
District Forest Officer Ajeet Pratap Singh said, "We have caught the fifth wolf...One is left, we will catch that wolf also soon...We are trying our best every day to catch the left wolf."
Singh said that the operation is going to capture the 5th wolf was started at around 6 am on Tuesday morning and completed at around 6.30 am. In this operation, drone was used to locate and capture the wild animal. "The entire operation had been ongoing since yesterday but the operation to capture (the wolf) started around 5:30-6 am and completed around 6:15-6:30 am...This was the first operation in which drone was not used to capture the wolf, but it was being operated to find out the next location (of the wolf) in case it escaped," he added.
"It used to run away upon spotting the drone, so we did not use it...One more wolf remains (to be caught), we even spotted it...We are alert. We will heighten vigilance in the village...Our operation has not concluded, we will get to work now and perhaps we will have the second success today itself. This one is a female, the one that escaped is a male," DFO Ajeet Pratap Singh told to news agency ANI.
Earlier on Monday, Forest General Manager Sanjay Pathak criticised certain media outlets for misidentifying jackals as wolves. He said, "Many media persons are running news without confirmation and calling jackals as wolves."
5th Wolf Captured in Bahraich
Meanwhile, in the wake of wolf attacks, the Bahraich district administration has built shelter homes to protect the villagers from the menace. The district administration has converted the Panchayat Bhawan built earlier into a shelter home. The people living in the Panchayat Bhawan shelter home narrated their ordeal about the terror of wolves that had spread in the village as they were forced to leave their homes and live here.
Chief Forest Conservator of Central Zone Renu Singh said that it is a huge success for us. District forest officer and his team have done this. We traced its pug marks and according to that we set up nets and waited because the rescue operation could not have taken place at night. We changed our strategy because it was changing its behaviour.
"This is a huge success. Four wolves were captured earlier and one more was caught today. So, we have rescued 5 wolves so far. DFO and his team have done this. This is very interesting because we received information yesterday that it lifted a goat in Nathuwapur. Tracing its pug marks, we set up nets and waited because the rescue operation could not have taken place at night. We carried out the operation in morning and captured it early morning...We changed our strategy because it was changing its behaviour," Renu Singh said.
"Earlier, we used to fly the drone right on top of a wolf and pick it. But they got smarter and started running away as soon as they spotted the drone. This time, we located, saw the pug marks but we stopped the drone in final operation...We then picked it up...One more wolf remains and we will make all the efforts to rescue it at the earliest...It will be sent to a zoo," she added.
Five wolves have been caught so far. Drone visuals taken on Saturday morning at Harbaksh Purwa village showed a vast stretch of agricultural land under surveillance.