A rabid jackal was beaten to death by villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district after it attacked and injured five persons in two villages under the Nanpara forest range, officials said on Saturday.

According to reports, the first incident was reported from Mogariya village on Friday morning, where the jackal attacked 65-year-old Tahsildar.

Later in the afternoon, the same jackal attacked Kesrani Devi (55) in Masood Nagar Basthanwa village, when she was working in the fields. Her brother-in-law Ramkaran Verma, who rushed to save her, was also injured in the attack.

Shortly afterwards, the jackal struck again near a temple, injuring two more villagers – Mohanlal (54) and America Prasad (42).

The villagers then launched a search and managed to corner the animal in a sugarcane field, and killed it with sticks and rods.

Range Officer Piyush Gupta said after receiving information about the attacks, forest officials collected the jackal's carcass and sent it for post-mortem, which confirmed that the animal was infected with rabies.

Divisional Forest Officer Ram Singh Yadav said the injured villagers were given anti-rabies injections at a government hospital, where they are undergoing treatment.

Yadav also urged the villagers to report any aggressive or unusual animal behaviour to the forest department to prevent further incidents.

While Bahraich district has been in the news for wolf attacks of late, incidents of jackal attacks have been rare. Since September 9, six people, four of them children, have been killed in wolf attacks in the Kaisarganj and Mahsi areas, while around 35 others have been injured.

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