India's 'killer dogs': Strays blamed for spate of child deaths
A walk into a lush green mango orchard has never been this frightening. Escorted by three young men, each armed with a big bamboo stick, we make our way to a tree trunk which still has blood stains on it. This is the spot Khalid Ali was mauled to death by what is believed to be a pack of stray dogs on 1 May. The 11-year-old had been on his way to school in Gurpallia village when he made a detour to pick some fruit. "I heard loud screams from the neighbouring orchard in the morning. What I saw was gory. This little boy, who was being attacked by dogs, tried to climb up a tree but the animals pulled him down and mauled him. I ran towards the village for help," says Ameen Ahmed, a mango farmer.
Khalid Ali had stopped breathing by the time villagers arrived. The "killer dogs" had vanished into the forests. His devastated family is struggling to comprehend what happened. Khalid was not the only victim of mauling that day. Two more children in a 26 sq km radius were also killed by packs of "killer dogs". Around 12 children who have survived the attack have suffered terrible injuries. Terrified parents have stopped sending their children to school. No-one seems to know why the stray dogs in the area have suddenly turned into "child killers".
Rumours of a "rare breed of man-eater dogs emerging out of the nearby forests" have also spread. Sabir Ali, whose nephew was one of the victims, says that the animals who attacked the child were not "the normal stray dogs thronging the villages". "They were slightly bigger and their jaws were like that of a jackal."
Teams from the World Wildlife Fund and Indian Veterinary Research Institute have been camping in the region to ascertain the exact breed of the animals. Vivek Sharma, the chief trainer with the Animal Welfare Board of India, who is in the district to try to solve the mystery, believes the "dogs" may actually be wolves. "I won't be surprised if the real culprits are wolves, and rabid ones. They can travel between one and 20km within a day, they attack in groups and only target minors," he says. In fact, several wolf attacks have been reported in Uttar Pradesh and the neighbouring state of Bihar in the past few years. Asghar Jamal, a reputed dog breeder in the region, says cross-breeding between dogs and hyenas or wolves could be to blame. "This would give us a variety of dog which though not a hunting hound, is as deadly as them in nature."