2 more girls injured in wolf attacks in Bahraich

Two more girls have been injured in suspected wolf attacks in two villages of Mahasi tehsil in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district, officials said on Wednesday. According to the officials, one of the incidents, involving a 11-year-old girl, took place in Makupurwa village late Tuesday night, while the other attack occurred in Bhavani Pur village, where a 10-year-old girl was injured. Though the villagers claim the attacks were carried out by wolves, government doctors suspect the injuries may have been caused by bites from another animal, they said.

The forest department said it was yet to confirm which animal was behind the latest attacks in the region, which has been in the grip of fear due to maneating wolves that have killed eight people and injured more than 30 since mid-July. In the first incident, according to villagers, a 11-year-old girl, who was sleeping with her family in Makupurwa village, was lifted from her bed and dragged by the neck by a wild animal late Tuesday night. The family raised an alarm and chased the animal away, forcing it to leave the injured girl behind, they claimed. In the second incident in Bhavani Pur village, a 10-year-old girl was dragged off her bed by a wolf around 5 am on Wednesday. The girl's mother said, "I saw the wolf approaching and we started hitting it with sticks. It left the child and fled." Bhavani Pur village head Gulraj also mentioned the possibility of a wolf attack.

Both the girls are being treated at the Mahsi Community Health Centre (CHC), the officials said. "Bite marks and scratches have been found on various body parts of both the girls. It is possible these are animal bites," CHC incharge Dr Ashish Verma told reporters. He added that there have been around 30 similar cases since mid- July. However, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajit Pratap Singh expressed doubts about wolves being involved. "In the Makupurwa incident, if a wolf had dragged a 4-foot-tall child by the neck, there would have been signs of dragging, which were not found. No wolf tracks were found nearby," he said.

"Fresh wolf tracks were found at 4 am but the attack in Bhavani Pur was reported to have occurred at 5 am. The locations are far apart, and wolves cannot cover such a distance in such a short time," Singh said. He suggested that hospital doctors should send swabs of the girls' wounds to the Wildlife Institute of India for analysis to identify the animal involved.