The trio has already hunted and killed seven villagers, including six children, and injured 22 people in the past 45 days. When a TOI team joined the chase with forest teams, it found foresters equipped with night-vision drones, nets, and tranquiliser guns in one of the biggest hunting operations in UP in recent years.
CM Yogi Adityanath dispatched forest minister Arun Kumar Saxena to ground zero Wednesday for on the spot report of operation.
After an unsuccessful non-stop 48-hour combing, the teams finally had a glimmer of hope around 9.30am on Wednesday when drones located the trio in the sugarcane fields of Sisiya village near the house of Holi Yadav.
“Wolves are sly and they managed to escape when we came close to catching them in the previous two attempts. This time we have laid a trap with a goat as bait. A tranquiliser team is ready once we get the breakthrough,” divisional forest officer Akashdeep Badhawan, who is heading the task force team, said.
“We have spread elephant dung and urine in the lanes of villages to deter the wolves. When set aflame, the dung produces an odour that mimics the presence of elephants which are known to repel predators like wolves. The idea is to create an illusion of elephants nearby,” Badhawan added. Villagers, hoping for divine intervention to ward off the threat, were busy chanting ‘Hanuman Chalisa’.
Holi Yadav, 54, whose house is near the sugarcane field where the wolves are hiding, said prayers and chants would drive away the wolves and end their reign of terror.
In neighbouring Hardi police station, uneasy calm prevailed over a cluster of 30 villages which has witnessed five deaths in the last six we-eks due to wolf attacks. The dusty, narrow walkways in the villages and local markets wore a deserted look.
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