Dogs, not hyenas, behind attacks on kids in UP village: WWF experts

Packs of dogs are responsible for the attacks, which and injuries to dozens of others, in Sitapur last week, confirmed experts from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) here on Tuesday.

The team has been asked by the Sitapur district administration to investigate the recent attacks on children there.

The WWF revelation nullifies the conjecture that hyenas, and not dogs, may have been behind the attacks.

“All the evidence collected from the sites of attacks and statements of eye-witnesses point towards the involvement of dogs,” said Wahid Jamshed, a wildlife expert of the WWF.

Jamshed and his team have also pointed out a change in the behaviour of dogs as a cause for attacks on kids.

“Prima facie it appears that dogs involved in the attack have overcome the fear of attacking humans. This is why they are attacking despite the fear of facing retaliation by locals,” said Jamshed, who along with his team of experts and local wildlife officials, visited the sites of every recent attack on Tuesday.

Pugmarks collected by the team from these places have also been found to be of dogs.

Wildlife officials have also considered the behavioural patterns of wild animals and dogs to reach this conclusion.

“All the attacks reported from the district took place during daytime, which is similar to the behaviour expressed by dogs. Wild animals like hyenas or foxes hunt only during night,” said Anirudh Pandey, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Sitapur.

The officer said the ‘striped hyenas’ found in the district have smaller body size which makes them incapable of hunting.

“Striped hyenas have a scavenging nature. They survive on dead animals found in forests and rarely hunt,” claimed the officer.

Elimination, the best solution

Claiming that dogs responsible for these attacks have changed their behaviour and have overcome their natural sense of fear of attacking humans, experts suggest that eliminating them would be the best way to mitigate the problem effectively.

“It is impossible to catch these dogs from the wild because of the uneven terrain. The best way to curb these attacks would be to eliminate them,” Jamshed said adding “elimination may not be the best way to deal with animals but sometimes it is the only way left.”

“If we can kill a tiger, lion and leopard if they start attacking humans or pose danger to human lives we sure can use the same method to deal with dogs too,” he argued.

Jamshed and his team have decided to suggest this as a solution to the Sitapur district administration.

Need to study the predatory behaviour

On the advice of wildlife experts, Sitapur district administration has called experts from Indian Wildlife Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly to conduct a study on incidents of dog attacks.

“We have requested a team of experts from the IVRI to conduct a study on the issue. We will document their findings in form a case study which can be used to deal with such issues in future,” said Sheetal Verma, district magistrate, Sitapur.

1

1