Four-year-old girl mauled to death allegedly by wild animal in UP's Bahraich

Bahraich (UP), Sep 10 (PTI) A four-year-old girl's mutilated body was recovered from a sugarcane field here on Wednesday morning after she was allegedly attacked by a wild animal, officials said.

The incident occurred Tuesday night in Paragpurwa village when Ramjit's three children were having dinner in their courtyard, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ram Singh Yadav said.

"An unidentified animal entered the premises and carried away his daughter Jyoti. After receiving information, forest police and administrative teams arrived at the site. A drone-assisted combing operation was launched to trace the child," the DFO said.

Locals claimed it was a wolf attack.

"While the search remained unsuccessful at night, the girl’s mutilated body was found in a sugarcane field a short distance away from the house on Wednesday morning," Yadav said.

One of her hands and a leg had been gnawed away, Yadav said, adding that forensic samples have been collected and the girl’s body has been sent for a postmortem.

The exact identity of the animal can be confirmed only after the postmortem and forensic reports, the DFO said.

"This is the first incident of human-wildlife conflict reported from this village. Elderly villagers said that such an incident had not occurred in the past 25-30 years," the officer added. PTI COR ABN ANM RT