Operation Bhediya: Tech and tactics to fore as admn pulls out all stops
The result: four wolves trapped, including one on Thursday morning, while the look-out is for two more
“It’s getting tough every hour as wolves are fast learners. Initially, with drones, we could spot them within minutes, but since yesterday, spotting them has become difficult,” said Renu Singh, additional principal chief conservator, forest department, who is camping in Bahraich for the capture operations.
Drone cameras for thermal imaging, 10 teams from the forest department, 32 from the revenue department, two companies of PAC, personnel from seven police stations, home guards and members of Prantiya Raksha Dal (PRD) were pressed into tracking operations.
The result: four wolves trapped, including one on Thursday morning, while the look-out is for two more.
Four cages have been brought in along with sound systems while combing operations continue in around 35 villages at risk.
DFO Ajit Pratap Singh said, “We had installed cages and nets in Kolaila hamlet of Sisaiya Churamani village. On Thursday morning, a wolf got trapped in the net and was later shifted to a cage,” said the DFO.
He said that the captured wolf is a male and is about 5 years old.
Principal chief conservator of forests (Wildlife), Sanjay Srivastava, said that the wolf was first detected by a thermal drone at 11 pm on Wednesday night.
“It was monitored again through a drone around 5 am the following morning. The wolf’s footprints were spotted, and the local forest department officials quickly sprang into action. After a challenging effort, they successfully captured the wolf from the floodplain of Sisayya village at around 10:45 a.m. The search for the other two wolves is still on,” he added.
“We have captured four wolves: all between 25 kg and 30 kg and young. They will be taken to Lucknow and Gorakhpur zoos,” said Renu Singh.
The forest department has recorded seven deaths among which compensation has been paid to families of four and the process is going on for the fifth. “For the other two, a young girl and a 45-year-old woman, we are verifying the cause of death,” said Renu Singh.
“It seems that rain water filled their caves and wolves came out in search of food. They killed their first prey, a child and found it easy to repeat, which led to more killings. We are focusing on cutting the route between the pack of wolves and human settlements first and then trapping them, for which over 200 trained staff are on the field,” said Singh.
Giving details about the capture tactics DFO, Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, B Shivshankar said that the operation started at 8 am. He said that the tactics used to trap leopards and tigers do not work in catching wolves, so there is a different way to catch them.
Being very intelligent, wolves never go into a cage, so you will have to catch them using a net. Taking help from experienced local people, who know how to trap a wolf, the team has set up a lighter net trap. Shiv Shankar said, “We use nets to trap leopards and tigers but they are too heavy. Hence, to catch wolves we have arranged a light net”, which will make the wolf feel that he would be able to cross it easily.
“With this method we have trapped a wolf and as this is working we shall continue doing this apart from other measures,” he said.
Forest and other staff are moving in separate teams, trying to force the wolves to move in a particular direction to capture them.