Lucknow: The forest department has decided to register an FIR against unidentified people in connection with the animal’s death. (File)
The terror caused by a pack of six wolves in the Mahsi region of Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, where they killed eight people and injured 20 others over the past three months, has ended when villagers killed the last remaining wolf as it attempted to hunt a goat.
Forest officials have seized the wolf’s body and are preparing to send it for a postmortem. They said the wolf appeared to have been attacked with stones and beaten with sticks.
The forest department has decided to register an FIR against unidentified people in connection with the animal’s death.
Of the six wolves, four were captured and sent to a zoo, while the fifth wolf reportedly died “due to a heart attack caused by stress”.
A massive operation had been underway since the last wolf was caught on September 10 in Sisai Churamani village.
Ajeet Kumar Singh, Divisional Forest Officer, Bahraich, said that forest officials received information that villagers had beaten a wolf to death in Tamachpur village while it was trying to take away a goat. A team of forest and district officials reached the spot and seized the animal’s body.
Singh said that it could not yet be determined who was responsible for attacking the animal as the details would become clear only during the investigation. He confirmed that with the death of the wolf, no other member of the six-wolf pack is at large.
Over the past three months, a pack of six wolves had been targeting people, mostly children, in 35 villages of Mahasi tehsil after sunset. The first fatality—a one-month-old boy—was reported on July 17 in Sikandarpur village. Later, seven others were attacked and killed. The state has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the deceased.
Since the attacks began, the forest department launched Operation Bhediya to capture the animals.
Mahasi tehsil, which witnessed these attacks, is located about 80 km from the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and 55 km from the Saryu River.
Forest officials suspect that these wolves used to live near the river but were forced to move closer to human settlements after their natural habitat was flooded. A scarcity of natural prey is believed to have driven them to attack humans, and it was suspected that they had developed a taste for human flesh.
