Dogs maul another girl to death in UP's Sitapur, toll 13

LUCKNOW: A 10-year-old girl was mauled to death by savage dogs in a Khairabad village of Sitapur district on Sunday, raising the death count in the continuing string of canine attacks to 13 since November, 2017. The deadly attacks continued even after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit to the district 48 hours ago to calm tempers, where he ordered the administration to wipe out the canine menace.
Hours after the seventh death in 13 days, the district administration ordered curbs on movement of children outside homes without elders even as anger boiled over in Sitapur.
Speaking to TOI, district magistrate, Sitapur, Sheetal Verma said, “Block development officers, gram pradhans, lekhpals, doctors, teachers and kotedars will set up committees to ensure no child goes out without any elder.”
“Ten-year-old Reena of Maheshpur-Chillawar village under Khairabad police station was mauled to death by dogs when she had gone to a mango orchard with three girls in the morning,” said city magistrate Harsh Deo Pandey. Some villagers told police a pack of dogs attacked four girls and villagers rushed to their rescue when they raised an alarm.
While three girls wriggled out, one died. Villagers then informed Reena’s father, Chhanga, about the tragedy. He wept bitterly as he told mediapersons that Reena had left home alone around 8.30am.
We’ll be forced to kill dogs: Villagers
“After half-an-hour, I heard villagers shouting outside my house. When I went with them I saw my daughter had been mauled to death,” he said.
Enraged by the girl’s killing and the inability of the administration to stop dog attacks, the villagers kept Reena’s corpse on NH-24 and blocked traffic.
The irate villagers threatened to take action themselves. Karan, uncle of deceased Reena, said, “The administration is in slumber. We will be forced to take the law in our hands and kill the dogs ourselves.”
SP Sitapur Sureshrao A Kulkarni told TOI, “Reena’s body has been sent for postmortem examination. We have deployed more police teams for patrolling and intensive combing.”
The SP said that earlier attacks took place in Gurpaliya, Tikariya and Talgaon villages in north of Khairabad but since May 10, the attacks took place in Machhrehta, on the other side of Khairabad.
Indian Veterinary Research Institute joint director VK Gupta told TOI over phone, “It appears the dogs are continuing their hunting streak because innately they are carnivorous. They might be attacking humans due to non-availability of meat. We have got samples of their saliva, teeth and a dog’s body for study.”