New Delhi:

A 50-year-old woman was severely injured in yet another wolf attack in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district on Wednesday night. The victim, identified as Pushpa Devi, was attacked when she was sleeping at her residence in Raipur Korean Tepra village.

“The incident took place at 10 pm when she was sleeping. One of the children might have opened the door and it (wolf) was hiding somewhere. It came and grabbed her by the throat,” her family member was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

“The family members heard her cry and ran towards her. The people in the neighbourhood also gathered and then the wolf ran away,” he said.

Ms Devi is currently undergoing treatment in the Bahraich District Hospital.

Bahraich has been witnessing a spate of wolf attacks, in which at least eight people, including seven children, have been killed and more than 30 injured since mid-July.

UP’s ‘Operation Bhediya’ To Catch Wolves

Chief Minister Yogi Adityantath-led Uttar Pradesh has launched a campaign named ‘Operation Bhediya’ to capture a pack of six wolves that have been terrorising 50 villages in Mahsi tehsil of Bahraich district. 

So far, five wolves have already been captured and efforts to catch the remaining man-eating wolf have been intensified.

“The pack’s last wolf can be alpha wolf (leader of the pack). Till it is caught, the problem might persist. It is hoped that it will also be caught soon,” an officer said this week.

As many as 165 forest personnel and 18 shooters have been deployed to track the movement of the killer wolf. Thermal camera-equipped drones and snap cameras are being used to aid the search. 

The district administration and forest department have installed solar and high-mast lights in open houses and villages.

Rabies, Distemper Virus Behind Wolf Attacks In Bahraich?

A disease such as rabies or canine distemper virus could be responsible for the wolf attacks in Bahraich, according to SP Yadav, the head of the International Big Cat Alliance. The exact reason, however, can only be determined through a proper analysis of the captured animals, he told the news agency PTI.

“It is a one-off incident. It is not a regular occurrence. There must be a rabid animal or something similar that triggered this issue. Normally, this does not happen. I believe it is the first such incident in the past 10 years. The forest department is conducting surveys to identify the problematic animal,” he said.

Mr Yadav, who has also headed Project Tiger and Project Cheetah, said that rabies and canine distemper virus can sometimes alter the behaviour of big cats, making them lose their fear of humans.

“This could be the cause. It is important to capture the animal, analyse the sample, and diagnose the issue properly to determine the reason,” he told PTI.

Mr Yadav said tigers occasionally become “man-eaters”, which also is not a common occurrence.

“Hunting requires a lot of energy. It is not easy. So, when they get older or are unable to hunt in the wild, they may target easy prey like cattle. Similarly, if their canines are broken or their paws injured, they may attack humans or livestock only when they are in distress,” he said, adding that tigers do not usually identify humans as prey.

“In most cases, the tiger confuses people crouching in fields with deer or other prey,” Mr Yadav added.

Bahraich:

Amid fears of wolf attack, villagers in Mahsi area attacked and killed a dog after it allegedly attacked three villagers.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajit Pratap Singh told reporters on Friday evening that forest workers reached the spot on Thursday around 9.30 pm after receiving news of an animal attack on Sangam Lal, son of local resident Maikoolal, in Majra Lodhanpurwa of village Yadavpur in Mahsi tehsil area.

The villagers said it was a wolf attack but the forest workers did not find any footprints of the wolf, he said.

The DFO said on Friday morning again, information was received from the same village that an animal had attacked Kriparam (65) and his grandson Satyam (four). After the attack, the villagers beat the animal to death with sticks thinking it to be a wolf.

When forest workers arrived, the dead animal turned out to be a dog. There were no footprints of the wolf in the village. Injured Kriparam also said on seeing the dead dog that the same animal had attacked, he said, adding the injured are undergoing treatment.

Wolf attacks have been taking place on people in Mahsi tehsil area of Bahraich since March. The attacks increased during the rainy season.

From July till Monday, a total of eight people including seven children have died in these attacks. About three dozen people including women, children and elderly have been injured. About 20 of these people are seriously injured.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Khandwa:

Five members of a family in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh were on Friday attacked by a wolf, officials said.

The incident took place at 2:30am in Malgaon village in tribal-dominated Khalwa tehsil, some 20 kilometres from the district headquarters, Harsud Sub Divisional Officer of Police Sandeep Vaskale told reporters.

“After the family started screaming, neighbours and others arrived and chased away the wolf. A woman has sustained wounds on her hands while four men have been bitten on the hands. They are being treated in Khandwa Medical College Hospital,” the SDOP said.

Divisional Forest Officer Rakesh Damor told reporters the injured have been given rabies shots and medicines.

It was not known if the wolf has been captured.

The incident comes at a time when wolf attacks in Bahraich in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh have made national headlines.

In the last two months, Bahraich district has recorded eight deaths, including seven children in a series of attacks by wolves while around three dozen other people were left injured, as per officials there.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bahraich:

Amid the ongoing man-wolf conflict in Mahasi Tehsil of Bahraich district, the Uttar Pradesh government has declared it a ‘Wildlife Disaster’ affected area, a state minister said on Wednesday.

“Considering the man animal conflict in the region of Bahraich district, the region has been declared a Wildlife Disaster area,” Minister of Fisheries Sanjay Kumar Nishad told PTI.

The minister said that declaring the region a Wildlife Disaster area will not only expedite the ongoing ‘Operation Bhediya’ to catch the animals involved in the attack on humans but will also help the affected families to get a compensation amount without much trouble.

“By declaring a region a Wildlife Disaster area it becomes easier for the victims to get immediate compensation. There is a provision in the Wildlife Act that in case of terror of a dangerous animal in the forest there is no delay in taking decisions regarding killing man-eating animals etc. It also becomes easier to sanction funds etc.,” he said.

The wolf attacks on humans have been taking place in Bahraich since March. The attacks have become more frequent since July 17 when the rainy season began.

Till Monday, the wolves had killed eight people, including seven children, and wounded about 36.

Nishad and Forest and Environment Minister Arun Saxena, who visited Bahraich on Wednesday, held a meeting with the district officials and discussed in detail the attacks being carried out by the wolf.

The two ministers also visited the hospital and inquired about the condition of the villagers injured in the attacks and instructed the hospital administration to provide them the best possible treatment.

“Human life is invaluable, so an order has been issued to catch the wolves which are attacking humans. For this, teams of experts have been called from Dehradun,” Saxena told the media.

“Teams have also been increased at the local level to catch the wolf. It is expected that the animals will soon be either caged or shot if needed,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

Three wolves in a zoo outside Paris attacked a 37-year-old woman leaving her fighting for her life, a source familiar with the case and local prosecutors said.

The woman was bitten “on the neck, the calf and the back” at the Thoiry zoo around 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the French capital, the source familiar with the case told AFP.

Maryvonne Caillibotte, chief prosecutor in Versailles, said the woman’s life was in danger.

The woman is believed to have gone out alone for a jog after spending the night with her family in a safari-style lodge at the zoo, which it advertised on its website at between 220 and 760 euros ($235-810) per night.

Lodges in the wolf zone promise “silence, rest and disconnection”, according to the zoo’s adverts. They offer “a one-of-a-kind, very intimate experience with the arctic wolves you’ll be able to see from the living room”.

The woman “ended up in the safari zone, which is supposed to be restricted to cars. That’s where she was attacked by three wolves,” Caillibotte said.

She added that it was not clear “whether she made a mistake or the trail wasn’t clearly marked”.

First responders got to the scene “very quickly”, the wolves were “moved away, then returned to their area,” Caillibotte siad.

The source familiar with the case earlier said the woman must have got through “security systems, a trench and an electric fence supposed to keep the animals in”.

Police are investigating the incident.

Thoiry zoo was founded in 1968 by Paul de la Panouse, owner of a local chateau that has been in his family since the 16th Century.

He recalled to regional newspaper L’Independant in April how he initially stocked the zoo with a ship loaded with 120 animals brought from Kenya.

De la Panouse sold the zoo to a group of investors in 2018.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)