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The lame man-eating wolf went out to hunt children for the last time. How did they eliminate the beast that tore ten people apart?
The lame man-eating wolf came out to look for children for the last time. How was the beast that had torn ten people to pieces removed?
A pack of man-eating wolves that terrorized residents of Uttar Pradesh for months has been destroyed in India. The animals came to a village at night and attacked sleeping people. They tore nine children and one woman to pieces, and dozens more were seriously injured. Hundreds of hunters tried to find the predator, and government officials allowed wolf hunting for the first time in half a century, but nothing helped. The chief hid the lame wolf, who was believed to be the instigator of the attack, for the longest time. It was caught only in October.
The lame wolf used drones to hide from hunters for nearly a month before continuing his attack.
Since September 10, more than 160 foresters equipped with the latest technology have been searching for this negligent leader. The surrounding area was monitored by drones to track down the beast. Infrared cameras were installed in each village and recording was carried out even at night. In addition, nine snipers were deployed in the area.
Nevertheless, the wolf managed to escape from his pursuers. Eyewitnesses attributed fantastic cunning and slyness to him. One night, he again attacked the child lying on the roof. His parents believed that he was not in any danger there.
The beast climbed the stairs to the neighboring building, where it jumped onto the roof with the sleeping child. It grabbed the boy by the neck with its teeth and tried to pull him away, but was unable to. The victim was rescued and taken to the nearest hospital with serious injuries.
On September 18, a lame wolf was found on a farm 5 km from the village of Sisaya-Churamani, which suffered particularly from the attack. He was not alone. Locals believe that he had reassembled the herd to replace the one he had lost.
Forestry officials visited the site and indeed found wolf tracks. However, they could not confirm whether it was the lame wolf.
After a new attack on the child, the crowd caught up with their lame leader and surrounded him from all sides.
On Saturday, October 5, the lame wolf came to town again. It was his last hunt. In the middle of the night, he entered a house and reached the bed where a three-year-old boy and his mother were sleeping, but at the last moment he discovered a mosquito net.
The noise woke the woman up, and the wolf decided not to take any chances and ran. He ran out into the street and tried to drag away a goat tied up in the yard.
The woman started calling for help. The wolf was first chased by neighbors from the same village, and later by residents of surrounding villages. Eventually, they surrounded the wolf from all sides and killed it.
The Forest Service, which had failed to track down the wolf since September 10, learned of the incident only in the evening. The agency representatives who arrived at the scene found the remains of two animals on the street. A wolf with many wounds and a goat that it had caught. The predator's body was taken for an autopsy.
According to India Today, the forest department is yet to confirm whether the wolves are cannibals. According to Ajit Singh, there have been no further victims since the wolf was captured.
The first wolf attacks in Bahraich region were reported in March, but there was a lull for some time. The wolves returned on July 17. The group entered Naqwa village at night and dragged away a two-year-old girl who was sleeping with her mother and father in the yard, Hindustan Times reports.
Floodlights and loudspeakers were installed in the affected villages, but the animals were not scared. Authorities are urging people to seek shelter on rooftops or in closed rooms where predators cannot enter at night, to lock doors securely and not to go out alone.
The problem is that not everyone can afford it. Bahraich is probably the poorest region in the state. Many houses had no doors or funds to build. To protect people, city halls and schools were temporarily converted into shelters where people could take refuge overnight.
According to CCTV footage, the pack consisted of six wolves, including one that was lame. On August 19, the hunters managed to track down and neutralize their first wolf. Then, using drones and thermal imaging technology, three more were found, with the last one spotted on Thursday, August 29.
There were only two wolves left, but that was enough. On September 1, they wounded two women and tore apart a three-year-old girl. The attack on the child occurred at 4 a.m. The mother woke up to the sound of her younger daughter crying and realized that her older daughter was gone. “We chased the wolf, but it ran away,” she said.
The attacks continued on September 2. In the morning, wolves broke into a house in another village and bit a grandmother. She was taken to hospital with neck and head injuries. On the night of Tuesday, September 3, the animals attacked a 5-year-old girl, but she was saved.
The search for the fifth wolf lasted ten days. Only on September 10 we managed to catch it.
Experts are still puzzled over why wolves began to hunt people
As attacks continue, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given permission to shoot wolves on sight. This is an unprecedented measure. Wolf hunting has been banned in India for more than 50 years, since 1972.
Before Adityanath's order, predators were not shot even after attacking people. They were captured alive, tranquilized with darts and taken to the zoo. Of the five man-eating wolves caught in August, four are still at the zoo (the other did not survive the journey).
No one knew why the animals began attacking people. Last September, a Forest Service spokesman said: “This kind of aggressive behavior by wolves is not normal.”
The forestry department did not rule out that the attack was not carried out only by wolves. According to supporters of this version, this is manifested in the uncharacteristic tactics, which are manifested in the destructive properties of some bodies. This could have been caused not by wolves, but by honey badgers, relatively small but ferocious predators related to badgers, otters and martens. In India, there are also known cases of grave digging and eating of bodies.
Another theory considered by the Forest Service was that the wolf's behavior was revenge. If their leader became maimed after an encounter with a human, it could prompt the pack to attack.
Sanjay Pathak, a senior forest department official, had similar views. He believed that the wolf was taking revenge for its lost cubs. According to him, earlier this year, residents of Bahraikh saw a wolf den about 2 km from sugarcane fields, near which many attacks subsequently took place. However, the den was flooded by a swollen river. Not a single wolf cub survived, and for some reason the wolves blamed humans.
Pathak recalled a similar incident that took place in Uttar Pradesh in 1996. Then, dozens of people also suffered from attacks by man-eating wolves. During the investigation, it was revealed that farmers had previously found and destroyed the den where the wolf cub was kept.