An invasion of wolves is keeping the forest authorities on their toes in Bahraich, where the animal is suspected to have killed at least six people and wounded several, all within a very short span.
The Uttar Pradesh forest department has so far trapped four wolves, but the animal attacks have continued despite multiple teams casting a dragnet across a 75 square kilometre area in the district near Nepal border.
There is only a studied speculation about what has suddenly made wolves so aggressive that they have begun invading human settlements, terrorising 15,000 people from 50 villages of Mahsi tehsil of Bahraich.
"The aggressive behaviour of wolves is not normal. Rabies infection increases the aggression of wolves and thus this possibility of them being infected is there," a forest officer told PTI.
"It is necessary that medical tests be conducted on four of the estimated six wolves caught so far, so that it can be ascertained whether they are infected with rabies," he said.
Dr A M Pawde, Principal Scientist and in-charge at the Wildlife Centre of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly, said there is a possibility wolves alone may not be behind all the attacks.
Honey badgers, known as 'kabra bijju' in local parlance, too might have been behind some of the attacks, he said.
"The nature of attack on at least one of the eight victims suggested a pattern different from what is left behind by wolves, who usually attack their prey from the toe or target a vein at the back of the leg," Pawde said.
"But one of the Bahraich victims, a girl, had some part of her nose eaten away," he said.
Pawde gave his logic why wolves may have suddenly begun attacking humans.
"Wolves have a tendency to extract revenge. The Bahraich case seems to be a case of both revenge as well as growing human encroachment in wildlife forest space," he said.
"Wolves are extremely sensitive. The teams working on the field are now looking at the possibility of one of the wolves being lame, a possible consequence of it being assaulted by humans for venturing into their area in the past.
"This wolf could be the alpha wolf, the leader of the pack. This theory lends credibility to the theory about a pack of wolves being loyal to the one who was assaulted in the past and who are now targeting the human population in the vicinity," Pawde said.
"The other possibility is that wolves became aggressive after watching some people cause harm to their pups," he said.
According to sources in the forest department, 'Operation Bhedia', launched on July 17, has led to the capture of four out of the estimated six wolves possibly behind the attacks.
The last capture was made on the morning of August 29. Since then, two more incidents of wild animals attacking humans have been recorded.
Wildlife experts believe wolves are responsible for at least six of the total eight deaths so far in violent animal attacks. At least 20 people have been seriously injured, of which about 12 to 15 are believed to be injured in wolf attacks.
Bahraich Divisional Forest Officer Ajit Pratap Singh said several teams, comprising 165 members in all, are engaged in wolf-hunting. The state government has deployed nine shooters also.
"The affected areas have been divided into various categories in terms of their vulnerability and in each area is manned with two officers of the level of Divisional Forest Officer or Sub-Divisional Forest Officer. There are six teams of five members in each category," he said.
Rumourmongering is not helping the forest department either.
"Every evening, the forest department receives information about the presence of wolves at different places and all these tip-offs prove to be fake. These days anyone getting injured is saying that injury was inflicted by a wild animal," he said.
District Magistrate of Bahraich Monica Rani said the local administration is also installing doors in the houses of people who live in affected areas.
"So far doors have been installed in 120 houses in villages like Kolela, Sisayya Churamani, Sikandarpur and Nakwa," she said.
Rani said shelter homes have been established in Panchayat Bhawan Agraura Dubaha, Raipur, and Chandpaiya and Samvilian Vidyalaya Sisayya Chunamani.
District Panchayati Raj Officer Raghavendra Dwivedi, the nodal officer nominated for the shelter homes said these shelters are set up for the destitute or those who don't have proper houses in the affected regions.
