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Wild beasts scare in Fatehabad villages

Fatehabad March 21. Wild beasts, believed to be a pair of wolves, have killed more than 60 sheep in the villages surrounding this town in the last one month, causing a scare among the residents.

The suspected wild beasts have had struck Gillankhera, Daryapur and other surrounding villages at least eight times during this period.

What has, however, made matters worse is the fact that the wildlife preservation department has been awfully short of equipment and has failed to capture the animals.

In the first such incident, reported on the intervening night of February 15-16 at village Gillankhera in this district, 45 sheep belonging to a villager Sham Lal were found dead and 15 others were seriously injured. The villager had purchased those sheep after obtaining loan from a bank.

The wildlife officials were informed about the incident but they failed to even establish the identity of the wild animals.

The animals struck again on February 21, taking with them a lamb belonging to a villager Mana Ram. The animals have since been striking at regular intervals, killing sheep and lambs in Gillankhera and neighbouring villages.

According to a description by some eye-witnesses, the beasts were a pair of wolves.

The officials of the wildlife preservation department, who had earlier been denying the presence of any wild animals in the region, have now confirmed that the animals striking in the villages were a pair of wolves. Ironically, the department has not been able to give its report on the identification of pugmarks in more than a month.

Mr Beniwal said the department did not have tranquiliser guns to catch such animals. He said that there was only one gun at Chandigarh and that too was out of order.

Moreover, he has written for permission to kill the animals but his seniors were not willing to grant such permission.

The villagers have been carrying on searching operations in their fields on their own during the night but have failed so far. -- UNI

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