Jackals have terrorised a pocket of central Uttar Pradesh, killing a baby days after mauling six adults, just when people are grappling with a wolf menace elsewhere in the state.

A jackal dragged a newborn from her home into an agricultural field and killed her in Kodariya Purve village, Sultanpur district, on Tuesday morning.

This when wolf attacks have killed 10 people and injured 51 since March in Bahraich district, 180km northeast of Sultanpur.

Muskan Devi was sleeping outside her hut with her two-month-old daughter Kajal and four-year-old son Nate when a jackal carried the baby away. Her husband Monu Kumar was sleeping in another cot with their six-year-old son Sultan.

“I realised at 4am that Kajal was not in bed and then heard her cry. I saw the jackal dragging her into the agricultural field. I raised the alarm and we all ran towards her,” she said.

By then, she said, the jackal had dragged the baby for about 60 feet and killed her.

A week earlier, a pack of jackals had attacked and injured six people in Bhandarapure Lalak Tiwari village, in the Kudwar area of Sultanpur.

“We have stopped sending our children to school,” said Naveen Shukla, a resident of the village.

“Jackals attacked my mother Sabra Devi, 60, on August 28, causing her multiple injuries on the neck and face. She is still in hospital.”

Anil Tiwari, another villager, said: “Six people from our village are in one or other hospital following jackal attacks. The forest department has done nothing to protect us.”

He added: “We have formed two teams of youths to keep watch from 5pm to 7am, but that is not enough. The jackals hide in the crop fields and suddenly attack someone who is alone.”

D.P. Pandey, a local forest sub-inspector, said: “We have sent teams to drive them away but can’t do anything else. We have sent a report to our seniors and are waiting for
a response.”

Wolf threat

Villagers in Bahraich have contradicted Renu Singh, state conservator of forests, who said on Monday that with four wolves caged, only two remained at large and the attacks had almost stopped.

“Two more wolves are roaming in the Hardi and Mahasi areas of the district. Teams are at work to catch them,” she said.

But residents of Girdharpurva locality of Pandohia village said on Tuesday that they had on Monday night seen three wolves try to attack a five-year-old girl, Afsana.

“There were three wolves. We were sleeping on our veranda when the wolves attacked my daughter, who was in a cot with her grandmother. We ran to her when she started crying. The wolves ran away,” Anwar Ali, the girl’s father, told reporters at the Hardi Community Health Centre.

The government says 32 revenue department teams and 25 forest department teams are camping in Mahasi and Hardi to catch the remaining man-eating wolves.

But the villagers have turned to God after losing confidence in the government, organising recitals of the Hanuman Chalisa and the Ramayan.

Residents of 35 villages in Mahasi and Hardi are attending the events on the advice of priests, said Rakesh Tiwari of Mahasi.