UP: Woman injured in suspected wolf attack at home in Bahraich

Bahraich (UP), Sep 12 (PTI) In another late night wolf attack, a 50-year-old woman was seriously injured at her home in a village of Mahsi Tehsil here, her family members said on Thursday.

She has been hospitalised and is undergoing treatment, they said.

The incident took place around 10.30 pm on Wednesday in Kowinpura village, Bhawani Pur, Bahraich Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajit Pratap Singh said.

According to the woman’s son-in-law, Dinesh, Pushpa Devi was asleep in her house along with other family members, when the incident took place.

He said that a child had left the door open after which a wolf came in and attacked her.

Her daughter-in-law and others came to the room when they heard her screaming and found her lying on the ground, he said.

Locals also arrived at the spot after hearing the noise and seeing the crowd the wolf fled into a sugarcane field, Dinesh said.

The injured woman was initially admitted at the Community Health Centre, Mahsi and then referred to Bahraich District Hospital, Singh said in an official statement.

He said that three rescue teams are working in the areas identified by locals, using drones, setting up camera traps and searching for paw marks on foot to identify, locate and rescue the animal.

Meanwhile, public awareness programmes are underway to instruct villagers to stay indoors at night, Singh said.

Efforts are also being made to drive the wolf away from populated areas using fireworks in sensitive zones, he added.

Earlier on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning similar suspected wolf attacks were reported from Mahsi Tehsil’s two villages in which two girls, aged 11 and 10 were left injured.

In the first incident, according to villagers, an 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.”

Villagers claimed these were attacks by aggressive wolves, though the forest department had not confirmed this.

Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Sanjai Pathak, who is supervising ‘Operation Bhediya’, told PTI the day before the incident that a wolf will tear apart the part of the body it attacks, rather than just inflicting a minor wound.

Recent cases of injuries attributed to wolves show no clear signs of wolf bites, Pathak said, adding that nowadays, injuries from dogs, jackals, or other animals, or even from sharp objects like wood or nails are being reported as wolf attacks. This is currently under investigation, he said.

Since July 17, a campaign named ‘Operation Bhediya’ has been ongoing to capture a pack of six wolves that have been terrorising 50 villages in Mahsi tehsil of Bahraich district. Five wolves have already been captured and efforts to catch the remaining man-eating wolf have been intensified, the officials said.

So far, at least eight people, including seven children, have died and over 30 have been injured in suspected attacks by these wolves, they said.

The district administration and forest department are conducting rescue, relief and awareness campaigns in the area. Solar and high-mast lights have been installed in open houses and villages, District Magistrate Monika Rani had said earlier.

The government is providing financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the families of each deceased and Rs 5,400 to the injured, she added.

Recently, Cabinet Minister Sanjay Nishad announced that a “wildlife disaster” has been declared in Bahraich, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally monitoring the situation, officials said.

They added that hundreds of forest department personnel, security forces and officials are involved in ‘Operation Bhediya.