Representative image of a jackal
Credit: iStock Photo
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh: A video has surfaced online of a man dragging an unresponsive Indian jackal by a string tied around its neck in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district after a wild canid bit five people.
While a forest official on Sunday said they were verifying the clip, some locals claimed the jackal was captured by villagers on the spot but later became unresponsive and when they left it there, the animal ran away in a forest.
The clip has emerged on social media at a time when an invasion of wolves is keeping the forest authorities on their toes in Bahraich district of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
A wild dog-like animal attacked three men and two women sleeping out in the open in the early hours of Friday at Malgaon village in the tribal-dominated Khalwa tehsil, located 20 kilometres from Khandwa.
“We have also come across the video clip in which an unresponsive Indian jackal is being dragged. We are verifying it,” East Kalibheet Sub-Divisional Officer of Forests Sandeep Waskale told PTI over phone.
Malgaon residents told officials that the animal was captured on the spot but became unresponsive. When they left it for a while, the jackal darted into a wooded patch near a river, the official said citing the locals’ version.
“Canids, including foxes and wolves, pretend to be lifeless in difficult situations before fleeing,” he added.
The five people bitten by the wild animal suffered minor wounds. They were admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital at Khandwa and given anti-rabies shots and other medicines, the forest official said.
A wolf has big and sharper canines and inflicts deeper wounds, he said, suggesting the wild animal was most likely an Indian jackal.
“Two of our teams with seven to eight persons are still searching for the wild animal,” he said.
Earlier, officials claimed a wolf had attacked the villagers.
The canid attack in MP comes at a time when the incidents of wolves targeting humans in Uttar Pradesh have hit national headlines.
Wolves, which are bigger than jackals, are suspected to have killed at least six people and wounded several others, all within a very short span, in UP’s Bahraich district.