Representative image of a wolf.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh: Forest department shooters on Sunday killed a female wolf in Jarua hamlet, officials said.
Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav told PTI that information was received about the presence of a wolf in the Jarua hamlet of Godahiya No. 4 village on Sunday.
"A forest department rescue team reached the village along with drones. Continuous tracking was carried out using two drone cameras. One drone was positioned towards the riverine area, where the wolf was spotted running through tall grass. The rescue team opened fire, killing the wolf," Yadav said.
He said the animal killed on Sunday was an adult female wolf aged around four to five years.
Earlier, on Saturday afternoon, a male wolf was shot dead during a rescue operation near the riverbank in the same village.
The DFO said it was believed that the wolf pair had been spreading terror in the area over the past few days.
On Saturday, around 3.30 am, a wolf had lifted a one-year-old girl, Arvi, daughter of villager Ramkumar, from her home in Jarua hamlet, Yadav said.
He added that on December 7, in Mallhanpurwa village located about eight kilometres away, a wolf had lifted a four-month-old child, whose clothes and remains were later found in a sugarcane field.
Three wolf attacks had been reported in Mallhanpurwa between November 29 and December 7, he said.
Wolf attacks that began on September 9 in some villages of the Bahraich district have so far claimed the lives of 12 people, including 10 children and an elderly couple, while at least 32 others have been injured, officials said.
On September 27, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas and directed officials to safely rescue the wolves or shoot them if they could not be captured.
Rescue experts and shooters from other districts of the state and from outside UP have been deployed, and since September 28, six wolves have been shot dead during the ongoing operation, officials said.