42 'man-eater' dogs shot dead in Bihar's Begusarai; 3 shooters take part

The campaign against 'man-eater' stray dogs was launched following large scale complaints by locals over canine terror with at least eight women mauled to death by the dogs in Bihar's Begusarai. The shooters were assisted by hundreds of villagers.

Begusarai (Bihar): As many as 42 'man-eater' dogs, which struck terror in Bihar's Begusarai by killing 8 women and injuring 40 others, have been shot dead by a team of three national shooters since Monday, officials said. The campaign to cull the killer dogs was launched in Bachwara block on Monday on the orders of the SDM (subdivisional magistrate) after eight women were mauled to death by the canines.

The pack of dogs was becoming a living menace for the villagers as they couldn't go to the field to do their natural agricultural work. As a result, they approached the local panchayat who eventually requested the district administration to eliminate the dogs. Eghra SDO Rakesh Kumar with the help of the forest department hired three national-level shooters to kill the dogs.

On the first day of the shootout on Monday, 12 dogs were killed by the national shooters Shakti Singh, Rehan Khan and Rajaram Rai and they were assisted by hundreds of villagers. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 16 and 14 such dogs respectively were killed in the shootout at Bachwara Kadarabad, Arba, Bhikhamchak and Rani Panchayat limits.

"The people of the area were frightened by the terror of the man-eating dogs. In panic, the farmers of the area had stopped going to their fields. They were facing immense trouble as fields are the only source of their livelihood. Many women were killed and lots of people were injured. It was necessary to kill those dogs," a local farmer Randhir Kumar Ishwar said.