Wolf scare back in Bahraich, two-year-old boy mauled to death

Khushboo, the mother of the victim, Ayush, told reporters that she saw the wolf taking away her son. “Last night, as we lay in the verandah of our house, wolves came and took away my child. I saw the wolf. We tried to chase it, but in vain. In the morning, Ayush’s body was found in a sugarcane field,” she said.

The incident comes nearly 10 months after a pack of wolves terrorised 35 villages of Mahasi, killing eight people, mostly children, and injuring at least 18.

“We have sent a sample of a chewed body part to the laboratory in Dehradun for testing,” said Bahraich Divisional Forest Officer Ajeet Kumar Singh.

Forest department officials rushed to the spot after receiving information that an animal, claimed to be a wolf, entered a house at Gadamar Kala and took away a baby. The child’s body was later found a short distance from the house, with his limbs partially eaten.

The forest department deployed a drone to survey the area and claimed to spotted two jackals in the vicinity. The animals’ pug marks were also found, they said.

“The picture will become clear after we receive the laboratory report,” said Singh.

Seven teams were formed to track and capture the animal involved in the attack, officials said.

Forest officials are using thermal camera drones and other methods, and have also launched an awareness campaign to educate locals on safety precautions. The residents, however, expressed anger over the forest department’s reluctance to confirm the involvement of a wolf and a “lack of urgency in capturing the animal”.

“This is the third incident in the past two months involving a wolf attack. In two of these cases — including the one early this morning — infants have died. In the third incident, family members woke up in time and managed to prevent the attack. Forest officials are not taking the matter seriously and are trying to dismiss it by hinting, without any evidence, that a jackal was involved,” said Sureshwar Singh, BJP MLA from Mahasi.

Locals claim that the presence of a jackal in the area is unlikely. “If the forest department does not take the matter seriously and catch the animal, the situation could become as bad as it was last year,” said the MLA.

Last year, during a two-month-long ‘Operation Bhediya’, the forest department captured six wolves believed to be responsible for the deaths of eight people. Initially, officials had blamed a jackal, but later, based on drone footage and images captured using thermal cameras, it was confirmed that wolves were behind the attacks.

Also, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had in September 2024 conducted an aerial survey of the area and met families of those who lost their lives in the wolf attacks. — PTI inputs