Another child killed as wolf capture fails to stop pack’s rampage in northern India

A three-year-old child has become the latest victim of deadly wolf attacks in northern India despite authorities intensifying efforts to stop the rampaging pack.

At least eight children and a woman have been killed by a pack of three wolves in rural Uttar Pradesh in the last months, while over 50 people have survived attacks.

Forest officials in Bahraich district have caught one of the killer wolves, but the other two remain on the prowl.

The three-year-old girl was taken by one of the wolves from her home early on Monday, her mother told news agency ANI.

"She was bitten on both hands. We are poor people who work as labourers. There is no door to our home," she said.

The wolf attacks have left more than 50,000 people across 30 villages petrified, prompting the deployment of 150 forest guards and over 200 security personnel.

Residents alleged that the forest department refused to act, and demanded video proof from the villagers who first raised the alarm over wolf sightings.

"We surrounded the wolf in a field and called the forest department, but they asked for a video,” an unnamed resident was quoted as saying by the news agency.

“By the time we take out our mobile, it disappears.”

India routinely reports leopard and tiger attacks, but wolf attacks are unusual.

Authorities in Bahraich have installed loudspeakers and floodlights to deter the animals from attacking people.

Forest officials have placed urine-soaked stuffed toys near traps to draw the wolves away from residential areas. They have also burned elephant dung and urine to create an illusion of the presence of elephants as wolves avoid places where big animals dwell.

It is common in summers for villagers in India to sleep on mats or woven-rope beds outside their homes, where it is cooler, leaving them vulnerable to animal attacks.

The first wolf attack was reported on 17 July, when a one-year-old was killed. Many people have since reported wolves entering their homes at night and attempting to snatch away the sleeping inhabitants, mostly children.

"At 4 in the morning an animal attacked me. He attacked my neck with its jaws. It was bigger than a jackal,” one survivor told the Times of India.

“If I had not caught his mouth, he would have killed me."

Forest officials said on Sunday they had located the two killer wolves still on the loose with the help of drones. "Both wolves have been traced in this area. We will capture them today or tomorrow," said forest officer Abhishek Singh.

Bahraich district magistrate Monika Rani asked residents to be alert and sleep indoors. "We are trying our best to catch the remaining wolves as soon as possible," she told reporters.

Wildlife experts say wolves avoid human habitats but become man-eaters when they develop a taste for human flesh due to the lack of food following floods or other natural disasters.