Hundreds of Indian police have been deployed to search for a pack of wolves who are reported to have killed nine people, eight of them children, wildlife officials said on Monday.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, terrified residents of Bahraich district are keeping all-night vigils, deploying guard dogs and letting off firecrackers in hopes of scaring off the predators.
The killings have happened over the past two months, with the latest attack on a six-year-old boy in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The boy was sleeping on the veranda of his home — a common practice during the hot and humid days of the monsoon rains — when the wolf grabbed him by the neck.
“I woke up to find my son in the animal’s jaws,” his mother Gudiya told the Times of India.
“I acted instinctively and pulled my son away with as much strength as I could muster.”
Experts say wolves attack humans or livestock only as a last resort when they are starving — preferring less dangerous prey such as small antelopes.
But wildlife officials say heavy flooding from extreme torrential rains has swamped the wolves’ usual territory and driven them into areas of more populated farmland.
“When their natural prey is no longer available, wolves are left with fewer options,” said state forestry official Ajeet Kumar Singh, who is part of the wolf hunt, told the Times of India.
“The floods have created a scarcity that has pushed them to take risks they wouldn’t normally consider.”
The grassland plains of Bahraich district lie about 50 kilometres south of the border with Nepal, where thick forests cover Himalayan foothills.
Local media reported that some villagers have set fire to piles of dry elephant dung around their homes, hoping the scent of the giant animals will deter the wolves.
Others have soaked dolls in children’s urine, aiming to lure the predators into traps, media reported.
The office of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday ordered all efforts to be made to capture the pack.
“Catch the wolves at all cost,” it said.
Over 150 armed personnel and dozens of government forestry officials are searching for the wolves, having captured four.
“Drones are being flown continuously,” top state forestry official Renu Singh told reporters.
The majority of India’s roughly 3,000 wolves survive outside protected areas, often in close proximity to people.
Numbers have been dwindling due to the loss of habitat and a lack of wild prey, experts say.
The attacks have sparked hysteria, and in neighbouring Bihar state, a crowd beat a jackal to death believing the smaller animal was a wolf.