Indian villagers kill last wolf from man-eating pack
by AFP Staff Writers
Lucknow, India (AFP) Oct 6, 2024
Villagers in India have beaten to death a wolf believed to be the last of a six-member pack that killed nine people, eight of them children, wildlife officials said on Sunday.
The grey wolves sparked hysteria among residents in Bahraich district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where the animals were said to have attacked more than 40 people.
More than 150 armed personnel and dozens of government forestry officials were deployed to capture the wolves last month.
Five of the animals were trapped, with drones and surveillance cameras suggesting only one remained free.
Government forest officer Ajit Singh said villagers had contacted his team on Sunday after they killed a prowling wolf.
“We were informed about a dead animal in the village, and upon reaching the scene, we found a wolf with clear signs of physical injuries,” Singh told AFP.
“It seems it is part of the same pack of wolves,” Singh said.
Further investigations were needed to verify that no more wolves remained in the area, he said.
Experts say wolves attack humans or livestock only as a last resort when they are starving, preferring less dangerous prey such as small antelopes.
However, wildlife officials say heavy flooding from extreme torrential rains had swamped the wolves’ usual territory, depriving them of hunting grounds, and driving them into areas of more populated farmland.
Some of those killed or injured were attacked while sleeping on the veranda of their homes, a common practice during the hot and humid days of the monsoon rains.
The grassland plains of Bahraich district lie about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the border with Nepal, where thick forests cover Himalayan foothills.
The majority of India’s roughly 3,000 wolves survive outside protected areas, often in close proximity to people.
Numbers have been dwindling due to the loss of habitat and a lack of wild prey, experts say.
The animals, also known as the plains wolf, are smaller than the stronger Himalayan wolf and can be mistaken for other species such as jackals.
In Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 novel The Jungle Book, the “man-cub” Mowgli was raised in the jungle by grey wolves.
Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
Bangkok (AFP) Oct 6, 2024 –
Two elephants drowned during flash flooding in popular Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai, their sanctuary said Sunday, as local authorities evacuated visitors from their hotels and shops closed in the city centre.
More than 100 elephants at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province were moved to higher ground to escape rapidly rising flood waters, an employee who gave her name as Dada, told AFP.
But two elephants — named in local media as 16-year-old Fahsai and 40-year-old Ploython, who was blind — were found dead on Saturday.
“My worst nightmare came true when I saw my elephants floating in the water,” Saengduean Chailert, the director of the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand, told local media.
“I will not let this happen again, I will not make them run from such a flood again,” she said, vowing to move them to higher ground ahead of next year’s monsoon.
In Chiang Mai city centre, people waded through muddy water close to knee height in the night bazaar, and water flowed into the central train station, which has now been closed.
Tourists were forced to evacuate hotels and a local TV station showed a monk carrying a coffin through floodwaters to a cremation site.
Major inundations have struck parts of northern Thailand as recent heavy downpours caused the Ping River to reach “critical” levels, according to the district office. The water level peaked on Saturday but had receded slightly by Sunday.
Thailand’s northern provinces have been hit by large floods since Typhoon Yagi struck the region in early September, with one district reporting its worst inundations in 80 years.
Twenty provinces are currently flooded, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Sunday.
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