Bahraich: A Tale Of Howling Wolves And Wailing Mothers

A pack of wolves has been terrorising villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, where they had mauled over half-dozen children. The human-animal conflict is keeping the villagers on tenterhooks, prompting them to band as small volunteer security groups in shifts. They defend the villages from the wolves lurking in the fields and the forests. Forest department has caught four of the carnivores while efforts are on to capture the remaining two employing both modern and traditional methods. Till then, the local defenders will man the village streets from dusk to dawn.

The conflict between humans and animals is affecting the helpless and weak in Bahraich villages of Uttar Pradesh. Humans encroaching on animal habitats turning forests into human sanctuaries in the name of development is showing its ugly face. A pack of wolves hunts people mercilessly in the Bahraich hamlets where children are their main targets. As of now, wolves have mauled to death more than half a dozen children, two of them from the clutches of their mothers.

Heart-wrenching incident, where a child was snatched from his mother's lap by a wolf, and the child's body was later found in an adjoining field. Another incident in Diwanpurvillage where a snarling wolf brutally mauled a one-year-old child before dragging him into the nearby field, leaving, Roli his mother, defenceless.

In her courtyard, under the tree to avoid the heat, Roli lost her child after a few minutes of lying next to him on a cot. A wolf on the prowl for prey waited until she left the cot and went inside to get milk for the child. Unlike mothers, who lost their children to wolf attacks, Puja Maurya ofChandpiyawas fortunate enough that her four-year-old daughter spotted a group of wolves prowling through the fields. She immediately alerted her mother before the maneaters could vault over the child to attack, enabling her to save the youngster. Villagers gathered a started looking around for the attackers, but with no tools available to catch them called for help from the forest department.

Streams of fear surge in intensity after dusk falls. Villages without electricity for hours heighten the fear; even the growls of benign animals arouse dread. According to Kesari Lal, a local, wolves again made a failed attempt to assault. To prevent maneaters from having an opportunity to take a life, the villagers have banded together to patrol during the night in shifts.

In these villages of Mahasi tehsil where wolves have unleashed terror to quell their cravings for human life, frail older women and men as well as children need protection. After hunting over seven youngsters and a woman from the villages in two months, wolves have realised that children are easy targets as long as they find them outdoors. Schools are shut to keep children secure.

In villages, children usually urinate in the open, making them more vulnerable to wolf attacks. People find it more difficult after dusk, especially those without indoor toilets, who have to relieve themselves outside.Accounts of those who were left injured by the pack of wolves draw a frightening picture of how these maneaters stalk in the dark to catch their prey. They appear out of nowhere and quickly whisk their prey away before anyone can even notice.Since they have tasted blood, they should be caught before any more victims of their attacks are lost.

The attacks started in March of this year, and they became more intense after July 17. These beasts appear from fields and prowl from there. Following several attacks on people, the government launched a large-scale animal hunt and named the campaign "Operation Bediya." Using modern technology to track the wolves, who are believed to be a pack of six.

Renu Singh of the forest department confirms that four of them have been trapped by the department, and two are still on the loose. Drones have spotted six wolves, Singh confirms. In addition to modern technologies, traditional methods are employed to contain the animals in sugarcane fields. Elephant dung is used to keep them in check.

However, the question is how long these villages--regardless of age, caste, or gender--will remain in this state where their sole shared experience is fear.Their shared dread has united them in the fight against the carnivores. Within a 30-kilometre radius, the wolves in the pack are not showing any kind of discrimination. People realised that in difficult times, they should band together to defeat their common enemy without causing further harm.

With inputs from ETV Bharat UP team