Vijay Pinjarkar
Nagpur: When all focus is on tigers, there is some good news of a rare sighting of a pack of 10 wolves from Bor Tiger Reserve, 60km from here in Wardha district.
The wolves were sighted by Praveen Pardeshi, principal secretary to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Bittu Sahgal, environmentalist, Aneesh Andheria of Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) and CCF & field director MS Reddy.
The pack was sighted last Sunday on Aamgaon-Navargaon road in the core area of New Bor. Navargaon has been taken up for relocation. “First we mistook them for dogs and chitals. As we went closer we were thrilled to see 10 wolves on the tar road. The carnivores were shy and moved into roadside forest,” said a source who was with the team.
Earlier, there have been sporadic sighting of a couple of wolves in Bor by field staff but a pack of 10 has been sighted for the first time. Wolves are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and have equal protection as tigers. However, the species is much more threatened than tigers.
There have been sighting of wolves on the shores of Khapri lake near Champa village on Nagpur-Umrer Road in May 2014. Packs have also been sighted near scrubby areas of Paradgaon on Umred Road, and Bor and Degma near Hingna.