Bahraich district in north India has seen a troubling spate of wild animal attacks over the last several months. Ten people, mostly children, have been killed, and another 35 have been injured. Village residents and forest officials say wolves are to blame, but scientists say there isn’t enough evidence to support this assertion, report Arathi Menon and Nikhil Sahu for Mongabay India.
The forest department has attributed the attacks to the Indian gray wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) based on descriptions and drone footage of a pack of six wolves in the area. Following the footage, officials captured and removed the pack, Menon and Sahu write. Not long after this, however, two children and a woman were attacked on Sept. 11.
Conservationists and ecologists say there’s currently no evidence to confirm that Indian wolves are to blame. “There is no DNA evidence, no photographs, and not even pugmarks indicating wolves as the culprits,” carnivore conservationist Y.V. Jhala, told Mongabay India.
Without confirmation from genetic tests, it is “irresponsible to label wolves as ‘killers’ or use inflammatory language to describe them,” said Abi Tamim Vanak, an ecologist at the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).
The Indian wolf is an endangered subspecies, with only 3,000-odd individuals estimated in the wild. The canid favors India’s dry savanna grasslands, which have largely been replaced with farms, so wolves often subsist on livestock away from view. Vanak said any action against wolves could be a death sentence for an already dwindling population.
However, the attacks in Bahraich district have caused panic, and unable to differentiate between different canid species, people there have retaliated against feral dogs, jackals and wolves. Sensational media coverage that followed, showing wolves as bloodthirsty creatures, has worsened the situation, write Menon and Sahu.
Ecologists aren’t convinced. Since the 1990s, there haven’t been any recorded instances of healthy wolves attacking humans in the region. There have only been a few cases involving rabid wolves. Even if the attacking animal is a wolf, ecologists speculate that it could either be a rabid wolf or a disabled animal that can no longer hunt.
Another hypothesis is that the attackers could be wolf-feral dog hybrids “that are inherently bolder and fearless around humans,” the Mongabay India report notes.
“In some parts of India such as Maharashtra and Karnataka [states], we have observed the presence of hybrids in wolf packs,” said Iravatee Majgaonkar, an ecologist at ATREE.
The identity of the attacking animal(s) is yet to be determined. However, the recent incidents point to the need to understand and better manage human-wildlife interactions outside protected areas, experts told Mongabay India.
This is a summary of “Operation Bhediya reveals gaps in human-wildlife conflict mitigation” by Arathi Menon and Nikhil Sahu.
Banner image of Indian gray wolf by Shiv via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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