2 attacks revive wolf terror in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich after 6-day lull

LUCKNOW: Two stealth attacks on people asleep outdoors broke a six-day lull in wolf terror in UP's Bahraich early on Sunday, starting with a six-year-old child being dragged away by his neck before the boy's muffled scream woke up his mother and led her to make a desperate lunge that scared away the predator.

Gudiya, of Hardi village, had her son Paras next to her on a cot on the veranda of their home when the wolf sneaked up on them and targeted the child. The attack was eerily similar to the one in which a seven-year-old boy, Ayansh, was killed after being snatched from his sleeping mother in the same area on July 26.

Paras was lucky to escape with bite marks in the neck region, just as 55-year-old Kunnu Lal of nearby Darhiya village, who was rescued by his family after a wolf pounced on him barely two hours after the first attack. "I woke up to find my boy in the animal's jaws. I acted instinctively and pulled my son away with as much strength as I could muster. My cries for help alerted others and the wolf disappeared in the dark," Gudiya said.

Since March, eight people, seven of them children, have died in wolf attacks in the Bahraich region. Over 20 people have been wounded. The attack on Paras took place around 2.30am. The child is being treated at Mahsi community health centre near the village. Kunnu Lal, who was taken to the same facility, had similar injuries. Divisional forest officer Ajeet Pratap Singh confirmed that both were wolf attacks.

Over 150 provincial arm- ed constabulary personnel and 25 forest department teams have been deployed to tackle the wolf terror am- id reports the attacks might be by a single rogue animal.

Lone wolf may be the killer, says expert

A lone wolf rather than a pack of six may have killed eight people — seven of them children — in Bahraich since March, biologist and ex-Wildlife Institute of India dean Yadvendradev Vikramsinh Jhala said Sunday after a resurgence of nightly attacks in two adjacent villages in district, reports Pathikrit Chakraborty. Jhala, who has extensively studied wolf behaviour, said pattern of injuries indicated a single animal was involved in the fatal attacks so far. “If a pack of wolves were involved, the bodies would have been decapitated. In all the documented cases, the bodies were found intact,” he said.




Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.