Bahraich wolf attacks: One more child attacked allegedly by a wolf
An 11-year-old boy was injured in a suspected wolf attack in Bahraich, but the forest department doubts the claim, citing no evidence found.
Bahraich
Yet another boy was allegedly attacked and injured by a wolf in a village under Hardi PS area in the wee hours of Monday in Bahraich. The boy was rushed to a hospital where he was being treated for the injuries. However, the forest department is not taking the family’s claim of a wolf attack seriously.
Eleven-year-old Imran, son of Mohd Umar, was allegedly attacked by a wolf in Pipri Mohan village under the Hardi police station area around 3 AM on Monday. Umar said Imran was sleeping on the terrace of the house when a wolf attacked him. Listening to the screams of the boy, family members and people from the nearby houses rushed towards the roof after which the animal fled from the spot. The boy was rushed to community health centre (CHC) Mahsi.
Divisional forest officer (DFO), Bahraich, Ajit Pratap Singh, said a team has been sent to the area. Besides, range officers and other field staff were combing the area to locate the animal. The DFO ruled out the possibility of wolf attack in Pipri village.
He said that whether it was a wolf or other creatures like leopards and lions, all of them do not easily attack creatures of bigger height than them. Since the boy was sleeping on the terrace, it was unusual that the wolf would have climbed the terrace and attacked him. Besides, no pugmarks of a wolf were found in the area, he added.
He said that Wildlife Institute of India (WII) expert, Shaheer Khan, also inspected the spot and said that the pugmarks found in the area do not match a wolf’s.
However, the DFO did say that two jackals were noticed in the area in a drone camera. He said that family members may not have been able to identify the animal properly due to darkness and since there were wolf attacks in the area, people felt that the attack was done by a wolf.
Meanwhile, CHC in-charge, Dr Talha Shamsi, who has examined the injured boy in his medical report stated that “as per injury, impression on the neck looks like an animal bite”.
The forest department has captured five wolves out of a pack of six wolves allegedly responsible for killing 10 people including 9 children and injuring more than four dozen people under Mahsi Tehsil area in the past few months.
Excluding Monday’s attack, five such attacks have been reported from different villages since September 10. Six people including 2 boys (Nanku 6, Imran 11), 2 girls (Shivani 12, Suman 13) and 2 women (Gudiya 26, Pushpa 50) are said to have been attacked and injured in wolf attacks in the area.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had also visited Sisaiya Churamani village under Mahsi Tehsil area and met the victims’ families on Sunday. He assured that all possible help would be given to the victims and all the teams including 165 teams of the forest department, police and district administration would patrol in the area until the area is declared safe.
SHARIQ RAIS SIDDIQUI