Residents of Maheshpur-Chillawar and nearby villages of Sitapur blocked NH-24 after the incident. (TOI photo)

LUCKNOW: A 10-year-old girl was mauled to death by savage dogs in Khairabad village of Sitapur district on Sunday, raising the death count in a string of canine attacks to 13 since November 2017. Among the 13 casualties, seven have fallen prey to stray dogs since May 1.

The deadly canine attacks continued even after chief minister Yogi Adityanath's visit to the district 48 hours ago to calm tempers. The CM had ordered the administration to wipe out the canine menace.

Hours after the latest death, the district administration ordered curbs on movement of children outside homes without elders even as anger boiled over in Sitapur.

Speaking to TOI, Sitapur district magistrate 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."

The latest incident occurred in Maheshpur-Chillawar village under Khairabad police station, when 10-year-old Reena went to a mango orchard along with three other girls in the morning, said city magistrate Harsh Deo Pandey.

Some villagers told the police that a pack of dogs attacked the four girls. Villagers rushed to their rescue when they raised an alarm. While three girls somehow managed to wriggle out, Reena got bitten badly and died. Villagers then informed her father, Chhanga, about the tragedy.

The incident sparked anger in Sitapur and a lathi-wielding mob blocked NH-24 with the girl's body. A police team resorted to cane-charge to disperse stone-pelting protesters.

Reena's uncle, Karan, said, "The administration is in a slumber. We will be forced to take law into our hands and kill the dogs."

Sitapur SP Sureshrao A Kulkarni said, "Reena's body has been sent for postmortem. We've sought deployment of more police teams for combing operations in the village."

Earlier, attacks had taken place at Gurpaliya, Tikariya and Talgaon villages, which are to the north of Khairabad. However, since May 10, Machhrehta area has been the dogs' happy hunting ground.

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 in the absence of availability of meat. We have got samples of saliva, teeth and a dog's body for study." However, forest and WWF officials claimed that only a small roving pack was attacking children.

