The Wolf Is No Longer a Cry: Fear Grips Bahraich as Real Wolves Terrorize Villages
For the residents of six villages in Bahraich district, Uttar Pradesh, the ancient fable of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” has taken a grim and terrifying turn — except this time, the wolf is real.
The story that once warned against false alarms has come alive, forcing entire communities to live on the edge, spending their nights on makeshift machans and their days in anxious huddles, haunted by the howl of a predator that refuses to disappear.
For the past three weeks, these villages, located within a 20-km radius of Kaiserganj tehsil, have been living in constant fear after a pack of wolves reportedly killed six people — four of them children — and injured more than twenty others.
The attacks have sent shockwaves across the region, reviving memories of last year’s Operation Bhediya, when the government claimed to have captured six wolves following similar killings in nearby Mahasi tehsil. But the nightmare has returned.
According to Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ram Singh Yadav, the current threat comes from a pack of four wolves. “We managed to neutralize an adult male, but the remaining three — an adult female and two sub-adults — are still on the run.
Our teams are working relentlessly to capture them,” he said. Officials believe that rising water levels in the Ghaghra River have flooded the animals’ natural dens, pushing them closer to human habitation in search of food and shelter.
The attacks began on September 9 with the killing of a child in Paragpurwa village, and the most recent tragedy occurred on September 29, when an elderly couple, Khedan and Mankiya, were mauled to death.
The horrifying incident has driven villagers to take security into their own hands. “We can no longer sleep peacefully,” says Deep Narayan Yadav, the village head of Manjhla Taukli, one of the worst-hit areas. “Every household is guarding itself. We’ve divided ourselves into shifts to patrol the village all night.”
At dusk, the villages transform into scenes of vigil — groups of men armed with sticks, axes, and crude weapons patrol the lanes, while others man the machans (elevated platforms) built outside their huts. Lights, loudspeakers, and firecrackers have been set up to keep the wolves away.
In Manjhla Taukli, 67-year-old Brij Lal and his family sleep on two wooden machans every night, as their bamboo house lacks a door. “My wife and I sleep on one, while my son and his family sleep on another. It’s the only way we feel safe,” he says.
Schools have emptied, with frightened parents keeping children home. Kaiserganj Block Education Officer Rakesh Kumar confirmed that attendance in local schools has “dropped drastically.” Even adults now move in groups, refusing to go alone into the fields.
The situation has escalated to such an extent that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally visited Bahraich on September 27, directing forest officials to capture or eliminate the wolves if necessary to ensure public safety.
His orders came just before an adult male wolf’s carcass was found in a sugarcane field, proving that at least part of the deadly pack had been neutralized.
To restore confidence among villagers, authorities have deployed 12 shooters from the Forest and Police Departments and set up thermal drones, camera traps, and cages to track the remaining animals. The area has also been illuminated with 1,437 LED lights, 660 regular streetlights, and 91 solar lamps to enhance visibility at night.
Yet, despite the technology and government action, fear remains palpable. The villagers know that, unlike the boy in the fable, their cries are not false — the wolf has truly come, and every howl in the night reminds them that safety is still a distant dream.
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