A rare Indian wolf has been saved from a horrible death after its head got stuck in a plastic box.

Nature photographers found the wolf in a lake in Nagpur, India’s center. Their photos show just how thin the starving animal was.

It is thought that the wolf had been looking for food inside the container and had gotten stuck, becoming increasingly hungry over time.

Tanay Panpalia, a 26-year-old accountant from Nagpur, saw the wolf while taking photos with his friends, and the group tried to rescue it.

Mr Panpalia said: ‘It was a plastic container that villagers often use to store food.

‘The villagers throw away empty plastic containers wherever they want. This causes problems for wild animals.

‘I and two friends had gone to the lake to take photos of birds, but we were also hoping to take some pictures of wolves.

When we saw a pack of them, we were so excited that we followed them for a while to take photos. Suddenly, we found a young wolf whose head was stuck in a plastic container.

The other wolves watched us from a distance, and we were scared because there were only three of us and ten of them.

The young wolf seemed very weak because it couldn’t eat because of the plastic container.

Thankfully, the plastic had holes, so he could breathe and drink water, which is probably what kept him alive.

We told the Forest Department of Nagpur’s rescue team what was happening and followed the wolf until they arrived.

The team finally arrived two hours later, and with the help of a rescue kit, we caught the wolf and cut off the container from his head.

It was a success, and the wolf was not hurt. We kept showering him with water to bring down his body temperature and then released him back into the wild.

He ran away quickly and rejoined the pack later. The whole rescue operation lasted around three hours, but it was worth it.

‘I was sad to see such a beautiful animal become stuck and almost die because people did not know better.

‘I was following him and took photos showing people how their rubbish affects wildlife.’

After calling the forest department in Nagpur, they spent two hours tracking the wolf until a rescue team arrived and cut the container off.