Wolf saved from well near airport site

PUNE: Even as the

Dhangar

community and conservationists have been raising concerns against the proposed airport at Purandar, a sub-adult Indian

Wolf

was rescued from a well, located about 3km from the survey zone, on Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the animal being a schedule-1 protected species, no effort has been made as yet for its conservation.

Ironically, the Dhangar community, whose livestock the wolves prey upon, It was ironic that the Dhangar community, whose livestock wolves prey on, had provided the equipment to rescue the animal on Wednesday afternoon.

According to conservation expert Mihir

Godbole

, on Wednesday around 8.30am, farm labourers were surprised to find a wolf struggling in a 30-foot well to find footing in the water of a 30-foot well on their farm in

Kunjirwadi

at 8.30am on Wednesday. They were in the vicinity to inspect a power cord, which was possibly cut as the wolf fell into the well. The workers immediately informed the farm owner, who in turn called the forest department's local staff upon reaching the spot around 9.30am.

"The local forest staff and officer had reached the spot and suspended a carton into the well so that the wolf could climb into it. However, the animal seemed to have been in the water since late on Tuesday night and could barely keep its snout out of the water. It could not get into the carton," said Godbole told TOI.

By this time, The water was around 8 feet deep and the wolf had already ingested a lot of water in its struggle to get out. Eventually, it found some footing on a ledge and managed to be able to keep its head out of water by standing on it."The forest staff informed one of our volunteers about the incident at 11am and we reached the spot from Pune around noon," Godbole said. His colleague Ashwin Vaidya and he had borrowed nets from a group of Dhangars who were resting near the spot. "The wolf's main prey happens to be the livestock that this community owns. Yet, It is this community livestock that is the wolf's main prey. Despite this, they offered to help rescue the animal's rescue," he stated.

The rescuers suspended the net into the well, got hold of the animal and finally pulled it out of water around 1.30pm. As soon as it was brought up, the wolf ran away. "The animal appeared to be a sub-adult, and possibly belongs to a pack of six wolves that inhabit the Waghapur area, about 2km from the well. It is still unclear how it fell in, as the well is located in a walled area. The animal is also lucky that it did not come in contact with the live power cord that had been cut," Godbole said.

Asked about how these wolves will be affected once development on the new airport begins, "The well is located just over 3km from the survey zone of the new airport site. This is a schedule-1 species and has to be protected," the conservationist said.

This comes only a day after TOI reported that at least four known bio-diversity hotspots for species including the Indian Wolf, Hyena and

Fox

stand to be disrupted by the development of the new airport at Purandar.