Infant killed, woman hurt in wild animal attacks

Bahraich: A three-month-old girl was killed while an elderly woman was injured in separate incidents of alleged animal attacks in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich, officials said on Friday.

Family members of the victims claimed that the attacks were carried out by wolves, though the forest department is yet to confirm.

In the first incident, an unidentified wild animal took away Dinesh Tiwari’s infant daughter, Sandhya, from the verandah of their house in Gorwah village of the Mahsi Tehsil around 3.30 am when she was sleeping with her mother, Kaiserganj Range Officer Omkar Nath Yadav said. Upon receiving information, forest department officials, along with police, reached the spot and launched a search using a drone equipped with a thermal camera. On Friday morning, her decapitated head was found in a field near the house, he said.

The rest of the body parts were by the unidentified animal, the officer added.

Yadav said that after the incident, a large number of villagers gathered around the area due to which the animal’s footprints were wiped away. A post-mortem report will ascertain the identity of the animal. Efforts are also being made to capture the animal by setting up a cage trap near the village, he said.

The second attack occurred in the Babhanwa hamlet of the Kaisarganj tehsil on Thursday evening when 60-year-old Shiv Pyari was feeding her cow in the courtyard of her house.

She was injured after a wild animal attacked her from behind. Shiv Pyari was initially taken to the local primary health centre from where she was referred to Bahraich Medical College for further treatment, Range Officer Yadav said.