Authorities tell children to stay home as feral dog attacks claim 13 victims in Indian city

• The death toll from dog attacks in Uttar Pradesh has risen to seven in the past month and 13 since November 2017.
• A team from WWF has confirmed that dogs were behind the attacks.
  
• The police have deployed drones to track and trap the feral dogs.

Early Sunday morning, a young girl named Reena was mauled to death by a pack of feral dogs in Maheshpur Chilwara village, Sitapur district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The latest death brings the death toll from dog attacks to seven in the past month and 13 since November 2017.

While there were rumours that the creatures attacking the kids may be jackals or even wolves, or perhaps even a rare breed of man-eating dogs, a team from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have confirmed that common stray dogs were behind the attacks. 'The study of photographs of children attacked clearly showed that attacks were carried out by the dogs. Had any carnivore like wolf or hyena attacked then a larger mass from the body of the victim would have been eaten up and only bones would have been found,' WWF team members said.

However, the reason for the sudden surge in attacks has not been established.

According to city magistrate Harsh Deo Pandey, who spoke to the Times of India (TOI), Reena was out in a mango orchard with three other girls when a pack of dogs attacked them. While the three others managed to escape, the 10-year-old couldn’t.

Right after the latest incident the administration ordered that children were not to move out of their homes without adult presence.

District magistrate Sheetal Verma told TOI, "Block development officers, gram pradhans, lekhpals, doctors, teachers and kotedars (ration sellers) will set up committees to ensure no child goes out without any elder."

The state’s Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, visited the district a few days back and apart from offering monetary compensation to the victims and their families, he ordered the administration to find a way stop the attacks.

During his visit, he said, “There are 22 villages affected by this menace. We have seen children are particularly targeted by dogs. We are increasing security and will spread awareness among villagers not to let children go out alone. It appears street dogs turn menacing when they find the kids alone.”

Last week, the police deployed drones and night vision binoculars to track and trap the feral dogs.


After the incident on Sunday, angry villagers blocked the arterial National Highway 24 with the child’s body and also resorted to pelting stones. "The administration is in a slumber. We will be forced to take law into our hands and kill the dogs," Karan, the victim's uncle told TOI.