BHOPAL: Has the rabid animal that bit 17 people in a single day, leading to the deaths of six, died in Barwani district of southwestern Madhya Pradesh?If the state forest department is to be believed, a jackal whose carcass was found in a dry well outside Limbai village on Thursday is the same animal whose bites on May 5 caused the deaths of two women and four men later.“We’ve been probing the serial bites right since May 5, when the 17 villagers were bitten by the animal in Limbai. The statements of those who either saw the animal or were the victims of its attack, indicate that it was jackal. The jackal whose carcass has been found in the dry well outside Limbai village, is the same one, particularly as its hind legs are tied. Further probe revealed that villagers, after the May 5 attack, spotted the jackal and killed it. But out of fear of getting penalized as per law for killing a wild animal, they didn’t report it,” DFO-Barwani Ashish Bansod said.“The 17 people were bitten by the animal between 4 am and 5 am on May 5, but since then there haven’t been any such incidents. The primary examination of the jackal’s carcass suggests that it’s around 25-30 days old, which matches with the timing of the serial bites. Still our vets are taking samples from the carcass’s jaw to establish whether it was the same rabies-infected animal or not. As a precautionary measure, the patrolling by our staff in and around the village will continue and we’ve also kept the cages still in place to rule out whether more such animals are there or not,” Bansod added.The residents of Limbai village, however, differ with the DFO’s claim.
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