A jackal was beaten to death by villagers in Tehdia village of the Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh late Saturday night after it attacked a man and his daughter, forest officials confirmed on Sunday.
The victims, identified as Raj Kumar (41) and his daughter Sushila (21), were admitted to a local hospital with injuries.
According to Bahraich Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav, upon receiving the information, a team of the Forest Department rushed to the spot and recovered the animal’s carcass. It has been sent for postmortem, the report of which is awaited.
The jackal attacked Sushila suddenly while she was heading to her fields. Her screams alerted her father, Raj Kumar, who tried to rescue her but was also injured in the process. Hearing their screams, as nearby villagers quickly gathered on the spot the predator reportedly fled to Raj Kumar’s house, where it was surrounded and killed by the irate residents.
The attack came amid rising panic in the region with residents of six villages in the district living in fear of wolf attacks over the past three weeks. So far, six people have died and around 20 others have been injured in separate incidents believed to involve wolves. Forest officials suspect the villagers may have mistaken the jackal for a wolf in the light of the recent attacks. An investigation is underway in the matter.