Like many endangered species in the world today, loss of habitat poses a threat to the existence of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in India.

But there is one space which prides itself on being home to these wolves — the Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary in Jharkhand, the only sanctuary in India dedicated to wolf preservation.

The wolf sanctuary only exists because of the efforts of a little-known Indian Forest Service officer, SP Shahi, who observed how wolf numbers were on a decline in the 1960s.

“Back then, the preferred habitats of wolves — scrub and open forests and grasslands — were the easiest to bring under the plough, and swiftly converted into agricultural land,” wildlife historian Raza Kazmi shares.

“Simultaneously, a policy of elimination of wolves was followed on a wide scale by the British authorities and the killing continued into independent India,” he adds.

Shahi recognised the importance of what we now call ‘Open Natural Ecosystems’ for wolves. These Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) consist of a range of non-forested habitats, from savanna grasslands to deserts, which host a high density of “large mammalian fauna”.

During his tenure as the chief wildlife warden of Bihar, Shahi managed to eke out 63.25 square kilometres of wolf habitat and got it notified as the Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary.

More importantly, however, he recognised the critical role villagers living nearby and their livestock (primarily goats) played in the survival of Mahuadanr’s wolves.

“He ensured that the grazing and movement rights of local villagers shall not be impeded by the creation of this wolf sanctuary (legally a wildlife sanctuary),” says Kazmi.

The Mahuadanr sanctuary was created by focusing on wolf denning sites, which meant that the sanctuary was discontinuous and consisted of multiple enclaves.

This unique design allows villagers to graze their goats and move through land patches that are not part of the sanctuary.

On a managerial level, Shahi simply instructed his staff to manage the sanctuary in a way that did not create hostility against wolves due to restrictions on the resource use of villagers. That mantra continues to this day in the sanctuary’s management.

In 2013, Kazmi began “retracing some of Shahi’s trails in Mahuadanr using his old field notes”.  Much to his delight, he found “wolf signs, spoor, and trails all across his [Shahi’s] erstwhile field sites”.

These wolves had survived largely because of the goat-rearing pastoralists who could still freely access the Mahuadanr valley. Shahi’s decision to ensure their grazing rights had paid off.

Regardless, it’s not as though these wolves and villagers shared a completely peaceful co-existence. There have been instances of some disgruntled villagers poisoning adult wolves and killing their pups by smoking their dens, both during Shahi’s tenure in the service and thereafter.

In 2012, however, forest department officials at the neighbouring Palamau Tiger Reserve, who manage the wolf sanctuary, initiated the process of camera trapping and monitoring of dens where Mahuadanr’s wolves reside.

Thanks to camera trapping, the first images of these elusive wolves were revealed when Shahi took those photographs back in the 1970s.

Also, to compensate for the occasional loss of livestock, the forest department has involved villagers in eco-tourism projects.

While Shahi passed away in 1986, he left an exemplary model behind on how a wildlife species can be revived from the brink of extinction through proper policy frameworks.