At least 13 children in Sitapur village of Uttar Pradesh were mauled to death by a pack of dogs in the past six months.
After the 13th victim — a 10-year-old girl fell prey to a pack of dogs, on Sunday, 13 May, villagers took matter into their own hands and started killing any dog that comes their way.
The incident triggered a protest by the villagers who blocked the highways as the administration resorted to lathi-charge to calm down the mob.
The local administration also put a curb on the movement of children outside their homes.
There are two teams of police in the four police stations — Talgaon, Khairabad, Sadar, and Kotwali. All civil servants are on duty while the village heads have had a meeting to ensure that children are not sent out alone. The heads will also form three teams to be on-duty for eight hours each and consisting of eight to 10 people aged between 20-30 who will be protecting the kids and report incidents, if any. A team from the Lucknow Municipal Corporation has come down, a dog catching team from Mathura and a team from IBRI will investigate into the matter. We will also be creating a centre to sterilize the dogs.Vinay Kumar Pathak, ADM of Sitapur told ANI
Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came down to visit the grieving families to reassure them that action is being taken. He also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakhs for the families of the dead, and Rs 25,000 for the injured.
Times Of India quoted the joint director Indian Veterinary Research Institute VK Gupta as saying, “It appears the dogs are continuing their hunting streak because innately they are carnivorous. They might be attacking humans in the absence of availability of meat. We have got samples of saliva, teeth and a dog's body for study.” But no concrete finding on the dogs’ behaviours has been reported yet.
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