Terror of wolves in Bahraich: Somewhere, the dangerous animals that have entered the villages are being tracked through drones. Somewhere, there is a night-long vigil with sticks and guns and somewhere, despite all efforts, humans are falling prey to dangerous animals one by one. Similarly, cages are being set up in the fields at other places. Actually, a conflict is going on between humans and wild animals in two districts of UP these days. And that conflict has reached such a stage that in the last 45 days, while a total of 9 people, including 8 children, have died in one district, in another district, one person has lost his life and one is badly injured and is swinging between life and death.
Chaos in two districts of UP
One of these districts is Bahraich, while the other is Lakhimpur Kheri. Although the distance between these two districts is more than 130 kilometers. But both these districts are facing the same problem at this time. While the people of Bahraich are scared of the terror of wild wolves, the people of Lakhimpur Kheri are becoming prey to tigers. And the truth is that no one has any cure for this series of fear that has been going on for the last several months. Neither the administration nor the forest department.
Terror of wolves in Bahraich
First of all, let’s talk about Bahraich. In this district of UP, adjacent to Nepal, the terror of tigers is an old thing, but now a new thing has come in the form of wolves. Wolves sometimes enter the villages in the dark of night and sometimes in the daylight and often run away after catching children. The condition is so bad, you can guess from the fact that in the last 45 days, the sound of these wolves has disturbed the sleep of the people of 35 villages of the district and these wolves have killed 8 children and a woman.
No hope from the government and administration
Wolves are very clever. They are not easily caught. Anyway, they are not alone, but hunt in packs. In such a situation, even if the forest department manages to capture a wolf with great difficulty, the rest of the pack remains loose and the danger does not reduce. Now, people have given up hope on the government and administration and have started guarding their children by staying awake day and night. Now pictures of wolves captured in the forest department’s drone camera have also surfaced. In which it can be seen how even in broad daylight, wolves are fearlessly coming out of the forest and moving towards the villages.
Wolves changed the time of attack
Sometimes they hesitate a bit due to coming under the drone, but the very next moment they change direction and start moving ahead. These wolves are so clever that they mostly target children, because it is easy for these wolves up to 3 feet long to pick up and take away children. Now, since in recent times people have started waking up all night and chasing away the wolves, the wolves have changed the time of attack. Now they attack anytime, anywhere. They only attack when people are sleeping or children are alone. And they even enter homes to attack.
Eight incidents in Mahsi tehsil
And now due to this, night patrolling is being done. Along with the common people, BJP MLA Sureshvar Singh is also chasing the wolves with a gun in his hand. Ever since the terror of wolves has increased in the area, Netaji has also become very active in searching for the man-eaters with his licensed rifle. But despite lakhs of efforts, neither the attacks of wolves are stopping nor the deaths of innocents are stopping. In the Mahsi tehsil of the district alone, there have been eight such incidents in which wolves have made children their prey.
one incident after another
On the night of 26 August, a wolf took away a 5-year-old child named Ayansh from Diwanpurwa in Khairighat area. The child was sleeping with his mother, when the mother woke up, the woman started shouting. People went out in search of the child but he could not be found. And unfortunately, the next morning the child’s body was found lying some distance away from the village. Similarly, in Kumharanpura, wolves dragged an elderly woman from her house at night. The wolves’ grip was so dangerous that the woman could not even scream.
Wolves take away children by pressing them in their mouths
Earlier on 21st, in Bhatauli village, a wolf took away a girl sleeping with her grandmother. The wolf had caught the girl by her mouth. When the grandmother screamed, the family members came out and started searching, but it was of no use. Finally, after several hours, the remains of the girl were found. However, it is not that the government administration is not making any effort to deal with these wolves that have become a threat to the lives of people in Bahraich, but the result is the same.
Claim to have caught four wolves
25 teams of the forest department are trying to catch these wolves in five forest divisions of UP, i.e. Bahraich, Kartaniyaghat Wildlife, Shravasti, Gonda and Barabanki, but the wolves are constantly eluding the forest workers. There is also confusion about the exact number of wolves. While the Bahraich forest department is saying that the number of these wolves is six, the villagers say that this number is around two dozen i.e. 24-25. However, the forest department has now also claimed to have caught four wolves.
A strange way to scare away wolves
By the way, the forest department has now found a unique way to drive away the wolves. For this, elephant dung and urine are being specially ordered. Actually, the forest department says that by creating smoke by setting fire to elephant dung and urine, the wolves will start realizing the presence of elephants around them and they will leave the area. If forest officials are to be believed, wolves are afraid of elephants and want to stay away from them. By the way, when these efforts of the forest department will yield results and when this area of Bharaich will be free from the terror of wolves, no one knows at the moment.
Tiger terror in Lakhimpur Kheri
A different kind of terror has spread in Lakhimpur Kheri, UP, 130 km away from Bahraich. People in Bahraich are troubled by the attacks of wolves and people in Lakhimpur Kheri are struggling with tigers. Life has become miserable for people in 50 villages of the district. The point is, no one knows when and where in which village a Royal Bengal Tiger will come out from the middle of the standing sugarcane crop and make a farmer working in the fields his prey and then run away. This is the reason why now people in villages are engaged in guarding, they are afraid of going to work in the fields alone.
A man was hunted by a tiger
In Imalia village of the district, 45-year-old Amrish Kumar was attacked and killed by a tiger while he was working in the sugarcane field. When Amrish Kumar did not return home for a long time, people started looking for him, but the villagers were shocked when they saw the mutilated body of Amrish Kumar soaked in blood. It was clear as soon as they saw the body that he had been attacked by a tiger.
Danger due to Tiger Reserve
However, this is not the first time that people in Lakhimpur Kheri are losing their lives due to tiger attacks. In Lakhimpur Kheri, which is surrounded by Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, tigers have been coming to such residential areas earlier also and killing people. Dudhwa Tiger Reserve alone near Lakhimpur Kheri has a population of more than 140 tigers, but the way these tigers are entering rural areas has become a big threat.
People working in the fields became victims
People living in the tiger-affected villages of Lakhimpuri say that tigers come from the jungle to residential areas and farms every time the sugarcane crop grows high, because they often find easy prey in the form of cattle, jackals and wild boars among these crops. But the real problem arises when tigers prey on humans working in sugarcane fields. One special thing is that all the people who have been killed by tigers so far were sitting and working in the fields and the tiger attacked from behind. But the tiger never targeted people standing or especially from the front. This suggests that perhaps tigers kill humans by deceit, not intentionally.
Efforts to control tigers continue
Although the story of terror of tigers in Lakhimpuri Kheri is old, but this time it has been going on for the last six months. In recent times, while one person has lost his life in a tiger attack, another person is badly injured and is hanging between life and death. This is the reason why now the forest department is trying to control these tigers. Somewhere a cage is being set up and goats are being tied inside as bait, somewhere preparations are being made to set traps and somewhere tracking is being done with drones. The situation is such that the villagers have started guarding their areas to avoid tigers and the forest department officials are advising the farmers to avoid going alone to deserted places and sugarcane fields for work. Announcements are also being made in the area to make people aware.
(Report by Abhishek Verma from Lakhimpur Kheri and Abhishek Mishra with Rambaran Chaudhary from Bahraich)
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)