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.
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.