Wolves live in our minds. Our understanding of the species varies with our exposure to them. “In some instances, what is known about wolves seems to be informed by observation of the wolf; at other times, the information is rooted in lore, legend, or myth,” writes Debra Mitts-Smith in her book, Picturing the Wolf in Children’s Literature. “In many instances, however, the accounts contain both kinds of information. In each, what we see of the wolf remains limited by the human lens and entangled in human concerns.” In the popular imagination, wolves are wily predators that hunt in packs, are constantly on the lookout for food, and will not hesitate to pick up small children. As Mitts-Smith puts it, “the wolf’s nature and fate are linked to its hunger and appetite”.
This hits at the heart of what conservationists across the world struggle to do every day: Shift our perspective of wildlife from the human-centric approach to one in which we consider the animal’s overall role in the habitat.
Indian grey wolves are considered a threat to human populations in the regions they inhabit. The truth is, wolves are skilled hunters, and their role in the ecosystem is to keep populations of smaller mammals in check. Through predation, they ensure the cycling of nutrients and the well-being of the habitat’s flora and fauna.
India is home to two species of wolves — the Tibetan wolf (Canis lupus chanco) that roams the upper reaches of the Trans Himalayas and the smaller Indian grey wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). In their paper Distribution, Status and Conservation of Indian Gray Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in Karnataka, M. Singh and H. N. Kumara state that Indian grey wolves occur in isolated pockets in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.
Wolves are a grassland species that likely evolved during the drier period of the Pleistocene “to exploit a relatively unoccupied niche of arid zones,” according to M. Singh and H. N. Kumara. They write that “the Indian wolf became the top carnivore species of the Indian open plains (semi-arid grasslands, scrublands, grazing land, etc.), whereas the other species of large carnivores [like tigers and leopards] are mostly forest dwellers.”
Photo: Dhritiman Mukherjee
Cover photo: Dhritiman Mukherjee
“Indian wolves do not have the kind of pack structure that is generally seen in Eurasian wolves, where lots of unrelated wolves are seen together as a pack,” explains Mihir Godbole, of Saswad Grassland Trust. The Pune-based trust is trying to conserve the wildlife of grassland and scrubland habitats. “Indian wolf packs have an alpha pair, some younger wolves from the previous litter, and pups from the current litter.” This means that all wolves in a single pack are related to each other.
Photo: Vishwatej Pawar/ The Grasslands Trust
This image of an Indian grey wolf, great Indian bustard, and blackbuck was taken in Nannaj, Maharashtra.
The diet of the Indian grey wolf varies with its habitat and ranges from small rodents to livestock and ungulates. The documentary, Walking with Wolves, which explores the relationship between wolves and nomadic shepherds in India, also mentions wolves eating wild berries, tamarind fruit, maize, and bananas — indicating a fairly varied diet.
Photo: Dhritiman Mukherjee
In places like the Saswad grasslands of Maharashtra, a large part of the wolf’s diet comes from carcases discarded by local poultry farms. “The poultry farms throw out a lot of dead chickens, which is a food source for wolves, hyenas, and leopards,” explains Mihir. “The habitat is mostly grasslands, with some rocky patches, agriculture, and unfortunately, a lot of town development, as many of these areas are pretty close to Pune, Aurangabad, and Nashik.”
Photo: Mihir Godbole/ The Grasslands Trust
Research indicates that Indian grey wolves are monogamous and pair for life. Together, the alpha male and female feed and nurture the young until they are old enough to fend for themselves. “Most of the pups will leave about nine months after birth,” says Godbole. “So, if they are born in January-February, they will leave the family pack by the end of the year. In some cases, a single wolf stays with the pack to look after the next brood.” These male or female “helpers” disperse once the pups are old enough.
Photo: Mihir Godbole/The Grasslands Trust
When it’s time for the young to disperse from the family pack, they make numerous “sorties” or recce trips. “They will check out an area, then return to the pack, then go on the next sortie until they find their own territory,” explains Godbole. Offspring have access to the parent’s territory at this time, but eventually, Godbole says, they all leave. “They generally disperse quite far away from their original pack, probably to avoid inbreeding.”
Photo: Siddhesh Bramhankar/ The Grasslands Trust
Wolves mark their territories using urine, scat, sweat, and by rubbing their bodies on the ground. “They deliberately deposit scat on thorny bushes, so it doesn’t get blown away by the wind or get washed away by rain,” Godbole says. “In human-dominated areas, where there are pathways used by humans, cattle, and two-wheelers, one finds more scat deposits.”
Photo: Indrajit Ghorpade
Wolves use urine for spray marking and rub their paws against the ground after depositing scat. “Wolves have sweat glands in their paws, which they use to mark territory,” Godbole says. “This is called pede-marking.”
Photo: Indrajit Ghorpade
Wolves are fiercely territorial and can be extremely aggressive while protecting their territory from other wolves or scavengers like jackals. This photo was taken in the Saswad Grasslands when a female jackal encountered a pair of wolves while scouting for food around her den site. The following morning, she was observed shifting her pups out of the area.
Photo: Advait Phadke/ The Grasslands Trust
The home range of the Indian grey wolf varies according to the availability of food and water sources. “In places like Rajasthan and arid parts of Gujarat, where food sources are scarce, very large territories have been observed,” says Godbole. However, in Maharashtra, food is plentiful because of the available carcasses and poultry waste, and their home range is very small. “In Kutch, where the Wildlife Institute of India conducted a study with radio-collared wolves, the average territory for an alpha pair was between 100-150 sq km,” Godbole says, “while it is as low as 10-20 sq km around Pune.”
Photo: Mihir Godbole/ The Grasslands Trust
Unfortunately for the Indian wolf, great swathes of its natural grassland habitat have been categorised as “wasteland” by the Indian government. This has led to construction activity, unchecked development, and increased interactions between wolves and humans. The nature of the wolf-human relationship varies from reverence to fear and loathing and generally depends on the potential for economic loss perceived by humans.
Photo: Pratik Joshi/ The Grasslands Trust
There are instances of wolves being poisoned by livestock farmers. Still, Godbole says that agricultural farmers appreciate the presence of wolves in their fields because it means that their crop is safe from large birds and ungulates. “Even when I interact with shepherd communities, they don’t hate the wolf,” he explains. “They are some retaliation killings, but wolves are part of their folklore; it is very much part of their system. One of the elders once told me that the wolves were responsible for the health of their flock because they prey on the weak, so ultimately, the health of the entire stock is better because there are wolves around.”
Photo: Dhritiman Mukherjee
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