Wild animals continue to attack humans in Mahasi tehsil of Bahraich district, with villagers accusing forest officials of being more intent on proving they are not wolves than on saving people.

According to the forest department, its teams have captured five of the six wolves that had terrorised the area since March, killing 10 children and wounding 65 people. It claims the lone remaining wolf is a “lame” one and that most of the recent attacks have been carried out by other wild animals.

Pushpa Mishra, resident of Mangalpurva village, said a wolf attacked her 10-year-old son while he was headed to school on Thursday.

“My son Saral was walking through the bushes in front of our house when I heard him cry out for me. I picked up a stick and rushed out,” she told reporters on Friday.

“A wolf had pounced on him. It ran away towards the crop fields when I hit it with the stick.”

Saral’s father Jawahar said: “A wolf has been roaming in and around our village for the last four days and has injured at least two more people. It is not a lame wolf; it can jump to a height of about six feet.”

He added: “We took Saral to a community health centre, which referred him to the MSD Autonomous State Medical College in Bahraich City. The wolf has badly injured him in the neck and face.”

Residents claim that at least three wolves are still roaming around a stretch of 55 villages in Mahasi tehsil.

Ajit Pratap Singh, divisional forest officer of Bahraich, said: “A lame wolf is still roaming in this area and attacking people. But there is no evidence that the recent attacks were by wolves…. No wolf attacked any villager on Wednesday or Thursday.”

He added: “We have divided Mahasi into three parts and are conducting extensive searches. Teams of experts are searching for pug marks.”

However, the 50 teams of experts and a dozen cameras deployed in Mahasi over the last three weeks have failed to prevent animal attacks.

Besides attacking three children in the last five days, according to villagers, a wolf carried away a goat from village Sisaiya on Monday.

Ram Kishan, who lost his goat, said: “We ran towards the sugarcane fields where the wolf had gone, and found the goat’s carcass there. The wolf was fit, not lame.”