Buoyed by the reasonable ‘success’ of rewilding five Indian grey wolves at a soft-release facility in Banaskantha district, the Gujarat forest department is all set to undertake another similar exercise — this time to check the population of wild boars and blue bulls that prove detrimental to the crops in Surendranagar. On Tuesday, on the occasion of World Wolf Day, another six zoo-bred wolves will be soft-released in Wild Ass Sanctuary of Surendranagar. According to officers, in the absence of any wild predators, blue bull and wild boar populations have soared in revenue areas of the state, posing threat to standing crops of farmers. Sandeep Kumar, incharge chief conservator of forests (CCF) of Gandhinagar wildlife circle, will formally inaugurate the soft-release facility at Thala Vidi near Dhrangadhra in Surendranagar by releasing six zoo-bred wolves into enclosures of the facility. “We have decided to release six wolves, including four females and two males into the soft-release facility at Thala Vidi with an aim to rewild them and train them for a life in the wild. These six wolves have been bred at Sakkar Baug Zoo as part of conservation breeding programme for this species and are thus captive-bred,” Nityanand Srivastava, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden of Gujarat, told The Indian Express. Thala Vidi is on the border of the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), which in turn, is the world’s only natural habitat of Indian wild asses (equus hemionus khur). While Thala Vidi will be the second facility for training and preparing zoo-bred wolves for life in the wild, this is the third similar attempt by the forest department. The first similar facility was inaugurated at Nada Bet, an island on the Indo-Pakistan international border in the Great Rann of Kutch in Banaskantha. The soft-release facility that includes a two-hectare enclosure and a four-hectare enclosure, sheds for quarantining animals and a monitoring-cum-administrative block, was constructed at the cost of Rs 50 lakh, Kumar said. “Our project in Banaskantha has been a success. Wolves released in that facility have adapted to a wild-like life and have successfully bred. They can be released in the wild after following due procedures,” Srivastava said, adding, “The conservation breeding of wolves programme in Sakkar Baug has been a huge success". In its second attempt, the forest department had released a few wolves in existing enclosures in Ambardi Safari Park in Amreli district as well as Gir Interpretation Zone or Devaliya Safari Park in Gir forest near Sasan in Junagadh district also. “While wolves released in Ambardi did attempt breeding and a female delivered a pup also but the pup didn’t survive. Therefore, the attempt remained unsuccessful. In Devaliya, the wolves have not managed to come together as a pack and no breeding attempt has been recorded. But breeding has remained successful in Nada Bet,” said Srivastava. He said the soft-release facility in Dhrangadhra will act as another gateway to the wild for wolves bred in captivity and will help augment population of these predators in the wild and eventually act as biocontrol agents on population of wild herbivores like blue bulls (nilgai) and wild boars. “We will follow the same protocol at Dhrangadhra facility as is being followed at Nada Bet,” Srivastava added. Sources said that of the three females and two males released in the Nada Bet facility, the males have paired up with one female each and have formed separate packs while one female has faced rejection. After pairing up with males, the two females have delivered a total of five pups, sources said, adding the packs have also learnt to hunt mammals. “Before being released in the wild, a few of the wolves from Nada Bet will be radio-collared so that their movement can be tracked once they go out in the wild,” Kumar, who is also CCF of Kutch territorial forest circle, said. Like Thala Vidi, Nada Bet is also part of Gandhinagar wildlife circle. “Gujarat has done a lot of work in conservation of wolves, including taking steps for their protection in Velavadar and Bhal (in Bhavnagar district), in north Gujarat, in Narmada district in south Gujarat as well as starting a conservation breeding programme in Sakkar Baug Zoo. The soft-release facility in Dhrangadhra is one more step in that direction,” said Kumar, adding, “Therefore, it is befitting that the new facility in Dhrangadhra will be inaugurated on World Wolf Day on Tuesday.”