Wolves wreak havoc in 35 UP villages, claiming 7 lives in attacks

A forest department team of Uttar Pradesh captured on Thursday a fully grown male wolf under its 'Operation Bhediya', launched to capture a pack of wolves on the prowl in Mehsi tehsil of Bahraich district that has so far killed seven people.

The wolf had terrorised residents in over 35 villages and with its capture, the local population has breathed a sigh of relief, a statement issued in Bahraich said.

So far, the forest department has caught four of the animals from the Bahraich area, with the latest one set to be relocated to Gorakhpur Zoo, it said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praised forest department officials for their efforts in ensuring the safety of the local community.

Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Sanjay Srivastava said the wolf was first detected by a thermal imaging drone at 11 pm on Wednesday.

"It was monitored again using a drone around 5 am. The wolf's footprints were spotted, and the local forest department officials sprang into action. After a challenging effort, they successfully captured the wolf from the floodplain of Sisayya village at around 10:45 am. The search for two other wolves is still ongoing," he added.

Srivastava said the team resorted to physico-chemical immobilisation and successfully captured the wolf using a net.

Barabanki divisional forest officer Akashdeep Badhawan, the in-charge of 'Operation Bhediya', told PTI that the wolf captured is a fully grown male.

Six children and a woman have been killed by the animals in the last month and a half in Bahraich with the latest attack taking place in a village on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

As per the forest department, there is uncertainty about the total number of wolves in the area, officials said.

Srivastava on Wednesday said 16 teams were working to capture the wolves, and 12 district-level officers were also stationed in Bahraich.

Earlier, following instructions from Adityanath, forest and environment minister Dr Arun Saxena, principal chief conservator of forests and head of department Sudhir Kumar Sharma and Srivastava arrived in Bahraich on Wednesday to supervise the operation.