Etawah: In a significant development for wildlife conservation, the endangered Indian grey wolf has been recently sighted within the precincts of the National Chambal Sanctuary in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh. This marks the first confirmed sighting of a wolf in the region in two decades, with the last documented instances reported during ‘Operation Bhediya’ conducted between 1997 and 2000 to track the footprints of these canines in Chambal.
Wildlife experts highlight the substantial ecological implications of the Indian wolf’s presence in the Chambal region. The sanctuary is already celebrated for its role as a refuge for critically endangered ghariyals, red-crowned roof turtles, and the elusive Ganga River dolphins.
The photograph of the grey wolf was captured on January 15 by Kartik Dwivedi, an education officer with the Etawah Lion Safari, during his journey to the interpretation centre in the Baah range. Initially, he mistook it for a jackal, but field officer Ranjit Kamar, accompanying him, correctly identified it as a wolf.
Dwivedi shared the images with wildlife experts, including those associated with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun, who affirmed that it was indeed an Indian grey wolf. Dwivedi, known for his role in the successful rehabilitation of 13 leopards in Bijnor, played a crucial part in documenting this rare sighting.
Divakar Srivastava, a retired district forest officer in Chambal, recalled the earlier sightings during Operation Bhediya in the late ’90s, describing it as the first serious attempt to map the presence of wolves in terms of numbers. After that initiative, wolves appeared to have disappeared from the region.
While there have been reports of wolf sightings in East Uttar Pradesh recently, the Chambal region, where they were once abundant, had not witnessed any signs of wolves for decades. The current sighting has sparked excitement among conservationists, emphasizing the ongoing challenges faced by these creatures due to habitat loss.
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