Trap cameras installed inside a forest in Purulia have clicked a pair of wolves.
“The pictures suggest a male and a female wolf. Wolves have been captured on cameras in Purulia before. We believe that there is a stable population of Indian wolves in Purulia,” said Asitava Chatterjee, the divisional forest officer of Kangsabati South forest division.
The forest pocket that is in Bandwan, close to 300km from Calcutta, where the wolves have been spotted falls under the jurisdiction of Kangsabati South forest division.
In Bandwan, the trap cameras were installed by the forest department on June 22, after attacks on the livestock of villagers who live near the forests.
“The nature of some of the goat kills suggested wolves. That is why the cameras were installed. We think the wolves clicked are part of a pack of up to six wolves,” said Chatterjee.
The wolves were clicked on the morning of June 25.
A local NGO has helped the department in the exercise. The cameras have since been removed.
A study, commissioned by the state forest department and done by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), had “gathered ecological data on the distribution and population assessment” of small mammals like Hyena (Hyaena hyaena), Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) and Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in the forests of south Bengal, except the Sunderbans.
It was the first attempt at formal documentation of these animals in Bengal, where their populations are largely undocumented and the extent of their distribution largely anecdotal.