India deploys drones after wolf attacks kill 2 children within hours in Uttar Pradesh villages

Dubai: In a chilling series of incidents that have shaken Bahraich district in northern Uttar Pradesh, wolves have killed at least nine people — most of them children — over the past three months, prompting authorities to deploy drones, camera traps and armed teams to track the predators responsible.

The latest deaths occurred between Friday evening and early Saturday morning, when two young children — a five-year-old boy and a 10-month-old girl — were snatched and killed in separate attacks just hours apart. The incidents echo a growing pattern of unusually bold behaviour by wolves in the region, with attacks occurring not only at night but increasingly in broad daylight.

The first attack happened around 4:30pm on Friday in Mallahnpurva hamlet of Kaiserganj, where five-year-old Star was playing outside his house. Eyewitnesses said two wolves emerged from a nearby field; one clamped its jaws around the boy’s neck while the other grabbed his legs. Before his family could intervene, the animals dragged him into the dense sugarcane fields bordering the village.

Villagers, including eyewitness Rajendra Singh, chased the wolves for nearly 500 metres with sticks before the predators dropped the boy. Severely wounded, the child was rushed first to Bahraich district hospital and then referred to Lucknow, but he died on the way. “We tried everything, but the wolves moved so fast. They were not afraid of us,” Rajendra said.

In the second attack, in Khoriasafeek village on the Bahraich–Shravasti border, 10-month-old Sunita was dragged away by a wolf while sleeping with her mother and siblings outside their home in the early hours of Saturday. Woken by the baby’s cries, her mother screamed for help as villagers armed with torches and sticks launched a frantic search. After more than two hours, they found the infant’s body deep inside a sugarcane field.

Authorities say the killings fit the pattern of suspected wolf attacks across a cluster of villages reporting similar incidents since September, though some forest officials noted that pugmarks from one of the scenes did not match those of wolves, raising the possibility that more than one species — or a different predator — may be involved.

Bahraich has witnessed a similar wave of attacks before. Last year, a pack of wolves killed at least nine people and injured several others in the district. The terrain — grassland plains located about 50 kilometres south of the Nepal border — sits close to forests in the Himalayan foothills, a habitat that can draw wolves closer to human settlements in search of food.

Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav said drones, camera traps and shooters have been deployed to identify and neutralize the threat. “The behaviour of wolves seems to have changed. They are active in the daytime, which is strange,” he said, noting the animals appear unusually bold and fearless of humans.

Experts say wolves generally avoid humans and prefer smaller prey like antelopes, attacking people only when starving or stressed. India’s plains wolves, listed as vulnerable, are smaller than their Himalayan counterparts and often survive outside protected areas, forcing them to live in close proximity to people.

Yet the fear in Bahraich is palpable. With five man-eater wolves already shot dead this year, attacks continue, leaving residents on edge. Villagers now keep children indoors, gather in groups at night, and patrol the outskirts of their settlements with flashlights and sticks.

“Our children are not safe even inside the house,” a resident said, summing up the terror that now grips the region.

-- With AFP inputs