Hundreds of Indian police have been deployed to search for a pack of wolves that are reported to have killed nine people, including eight children, according to wildlife officials on Monday. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, residents of Bahraich district are living in fear, maintaining all-night vigils, using guard dogs, and setting off firecrackers to deter the predators. The attacks have occurred over the past two months, with the most recent victim being a six-year-old boy who was sleeping on the veranda of his home during the monsoon season when a wolf seized him by the neck.
"I woke up to find my son in the animal's jaws," the boy's mother, Gudiya, recounted to the Times of India. "I reacted instinctively and pulled my son away with all the strength I could muster." Experts suggest that wolves typically attack humans or livestock only when starving, preferring safer prey like small antelopes. However, wildlife officials attribute the recent attacks to heavy flooding from extreme rains that have inundated the wolves' usual habitat, forcing them into more populated farmlands.
"When their natural prey is no longer available, wolves are left with fewer options," explained Ajeet Kumar Singh, a state forestry official involved in the search, to the Times of India. "The floods have created a scarcity that has pushed them to take risks they wouldn't normally consider." Bahraich district's grassland plains, located about 50 kilometers south of the Nepal border, have seen villagers resorting to burning dry elephant dung and using dolls soaked in children's urine to lure the wolves into traps, as reported by local media.
The office of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered all efforts to capture the pack, stating, "Catch the wolves at all cost." Over 150 armed personnel and numerous government forestry officials are currently searching for the wolves, having already captured four. "Drones are being flown continuously," revealed Renu Singh, a top state forestry official. Despite the majority of India's approximately 3,000 wolves living outside protected areas and often near people, their numbers are declining due to habitat loss and a lack of wild prey, according to experts. The recent attacks have caused widespread panic, with a crowd in neighboring Bihar state mistakenly killing a jackal, believing it to be a wolf.
