After days-long operation, the fifth wolf, which was sowing terror in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, was captured on Tuesday. Forest officials said the hunt for the sixth wolf would continue, and the captured animal would be taken to a rescue shelter.
Divisional Forest Officer Ajeet Pratap Singh confirmed to reporters that the wolf was captured during the early hours of Tuesday. "The captured animal is a female, and a search operation is underway to capture the remaining wolf," he added.
The operation to capture the animal began on Tuesday at 5:30 am and ended in an hour.
Chief Forest Conservator of Central Zone Renu Singh told ANI that the operation began after receiving inputs that the wolves had taken a goat in Nathuwapur. The officials decided to trace its pug marks and waited after setting up the nets. "The rescue operation could not have taken place at night. We carried out the operation in the morning and captured it soon," added Singh.
#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Amid a wolf terror in Bahraich, the fifth wolf has been captured by Forest Department this morning. One more wolf remains to be caught. pic.twitter.com/arjULYQqNU
— ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2024
#WATCH | Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh: Renu Singh, Chief Forest Conservator of Central Zone says, "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… https://t.co/RoYaBPXAyj pic.twitter.com/ceVL87McLL
— ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2024
The forest officials deployed a new strategy by opting to forfeit the use of drones as the animal was becoming "smarter" and began evading the drone. Earlier, the technique deployed was to fly the drone right on top of the wolf to trace its location. " But they got smarter and started running away as soon as they spotted the drone," Singh said. This yielded success.
Though the officials managed to trace a wolf earlier, it fled before the search team could close the perimeter, on hearing a drone. While a jackal and a wolf could look alike, their behaviour was vastly different. While a wolf will flee upon hearing a drone, while a jackal remains unaffected.
The Operation Bhediya was launched last week after the wolves killed eight people and injured over 20. Though the team began to capture four wolves, two evaded capture. The officials also faced several challenges including baseless rumours and reports from locals about possible sightings of the animal.
According to the DFO, they used to receive reports of wolves being sighted in 10-15 different places when there could have been none (in an area)". However, the officials said they made decisions only on their findings.
The department deployed 165 forest personnel and 18 shooters besides thermal camera-equipped drones and snap cameras in forests.
