A four-year-old boy died after being attacked by stray dogs in a sugarcane field at Kenjal village in Bhor taluka Saturday morning. The son of migrant farm labourers from Jalgaon, the boy, had gone to answer the call of Nature while his parents were working in the field when the incident occurred, the police said.
At around 10 am on Saturday, the boy was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood in the sugarcane field at Kenjal village which is around 48 kilometres from Pune. Investigating officer, constable Mayur Nimbalkar from Rajgad police station, said that the boy had multiple bite injuries on his body. “He was found nearly 500 metres inside the sugarcane field and appeared to have been dragged by the dogs. There were wounds on his entire body, suggesting the involvement of two to three dogs. He was brought to Bhor rural hospital at around 11.30 am where the doctors pronounced him dead and referred the body for an autopsy,” Nimbalkar said.
Initial fears that the boy might have been attacked by a leopard or any other wild animal were ruled out after an inspection by the forest department. Range forest officer Vasant Chavan who visited the site said that the injuries were caused by dogs. Besides, paw marks were found at the site and eyewitnesses too confirmed seeing a dog attacking the boy.
The boy’s parents were working in the field about a kilometre away when the attack took place. The family, originally from Jalgaon, had recently arrived in the area for the seasonal sugarcane harvest.
{{/usCountry}}The boy’s parents were working in the field about a kilometre away when the attack took place. The family, originally from Jalgaon, had recently arrived in the area for the seasonal sugarcane harvest.
{{/usCountry}}The Rajgad police have registered an accidental death report (ADR) and initiated an inquiry. The body was sent to Sassoon General Hospital for a post-mortem on Sunday and later handed over to the family. Investigators said that the viscera and swab samples from the body have been preserved and sent to a forensic laboratory to conclusively determine the nature of the attack.
The incident has triggered panic among farm labourers and residents who said that stray dogs often wander in the sugarcane fields and pose a threat to children.