Wolves, dogs or wolf-dogs? The Bahraich confusion lingers

In Bahraich, UP, five wolves have been captured amid ongoing attacks on children, prompting fears of a possible wolf-dog hybrid as the real culprit.

Five wolves have been caught, but the attacks, mostly on children, allegedly by wolves, continue in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.

Another wolf, part of a pack which has allegedly killed several people, after being captured by forest department personnel, in Bahraich district, on Tuesday. (PTI)

On Tuesday night, a 13-year old girl was attacked by an animal, which locals claimed was a wolf. Thus far, 10 people, mostly children, have died in the attacks.

Early on Wednesday, another 13-year old girl was attacked.

The Uttar Pradesh forest department blames a sixth wolf, the last of the pack it insists was terrorising the region. The department could be right, which means capturing the sixth will solve the problem (much like it has claimed after each capture). Or it could be wrong — for there’s a theory that the department is hunting the wrong animal.

Some experts have insisted the attacks could be the work of a single animal, a wolf-dog hybrid, that looks more like a dog than a wolf, which means it would be undistinguishable from village dogs.

VY Jhala, a senior scientist of Indian National Science Academy (INSA) at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), said that the sequence of events and the latest attack suggest that only one animal is involved. “I am sticking with my theory that the killer could be a wolf-dog hybrid. We have yet to see any pictures of the actual animal behind the attacks,” he said.

There’s also the question of whether a wolf would brave the risks involved, especially given the traps put in place, and the patrols.

Abi T Vanak, director, Centre for Policy Design, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and in Environment (ATREE), said wolves are highly adaptable. “In times of scarcity, they are known to also survive on rodents and fruit. Our countryside is filled with carcasses of livestock, and goats and sheep are abundant. A resourceful wolf would not have to look far, and certainly would not have to take such great risks as to attack children,” he said.

To be sure, neither Jhala nor Vanak, the top wolf experts in the country, is categorically ruling out a wolf attack.

There is no information whether there is anything to link the five captured wolves to the attacks.

But what is clear is that there are enough reasons to blame the wolves for the attack.

The first is history.

In 1996, the eastern UP districts of Pratapgarh, Sultanpur and Jaunpur reported a large number of deaths allegedly by wolves.

An investigation by Wildlife Institute scientists led by Jhala and Dinesh Kumar Sharma showed that many of the deaths were not by wild animals and were claimed either to settle old enmity or to get compensation. “Old enmities were also settled and blame put on the “Manai” (werewolf),” the authors note in the paper published in 1997.

And perhaps because of that history, there is fear.

And finally, there’s the compensation. The government compensates the families of victims in case of deaths from a wolf attack; there’s no such compensation for deaths from dog attacks — unless by special dispensation.

Interestingly, back in 1996-97, the two experts who wrote the paper concluded that an individual animal was involved as the carcass was not strewn apart. “The remains were mostly intact and not strewn about, which meant a pack was not at work but a single animal,” they wrote.

This time too, in at least six of the 10 suspected wolf attacks in Bahraich, the carcass has been found to be intact, indicating that one animal was involved. And while the forest department has claimed that teeth marks were found on the victims indicating presence of wolves, experts said the teeth of a wolf and a wolf-dog hybrid could be similar.

Meanwhile, villagers in the region live in fear. Some of sent children away to family settled elsewhere. Others are keeping night vigils. The state forest department, which initiated “Operation Bhediya” to apprehend the wolves allegedly responsible for attacks in 25-30 villages under Mahsi tehsil, has also installed cameras in Sikandarpur village around six caves, which villagers claim to be the habitat of the wolves.

Wolf, wolf-dog, or wild goose, they are hoping the chase (and their nightmare) ends soon.