Bahraich, Sept. 21 -- Amid a series of recent wild animal attacks on humans in Bahraich villages, a three-year-old child disappeared in such an encounter in Gandhu Jhalla village of the district's Kaiserganj tehsil. A search for the boy was taken up after he was dragged into the nearby fields by a wild animal in broad daylight on Saturday, officials said. The boy was yet to be traced when this report was filed. According to locals, the boy, son of one Raksha Ram, was sitting on the verandah of his house while his mother sat nearby in the courtyard when a "wolf-like" animal pounced and dragged the child away. The mother raised an alarm, but the child had disappeared into the nearby sugarcane fields before the neighbours could arrive. The forest department's teams rushed to the scene, and a massive search operation was taken up with the help of drones, trap cameras, and stick-wielding villagers. Yet, neither the child nor the predator could be located. Only bloodstains were discovered in the sugarcane fields, which have been collected for forensic testing. Divisional forest officer (DFO) Ram Singh Yadav admitted that the incident has stunned officials because such predators usually attack during night hours or early mornings, not in broad daylight. "Eyewitnesses are describing it as a large animal. The pattern of the attack suggests that it could be a leopard rather than a wolf. Only a leopard can drag away a child in front of people," he said. The DFO also said that neither the child's body nor his clothes were found, raising hopes that the boy might still be alive. Meanwhile, villagers accused the forest department of failing to identify the predator even after repeated attacks, calling the efforts "incompetent". Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MLA from Kaiserganj Anand Yadav visited the bereaved family and demanded Rs.50 lakh compensation for them. He demanded that the administration immediately capture the predator. GP Singh, former DFO of the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, expressed concerns over the current spate of wild animal attacks, which, he said, might be linked to flooding of natural habitats due to heavy rainfall and erosion caused by the Ghaghra River. "Wolves and leopards have been displaced from their natural habitats. Female leopards also train their cubs to hunt for over a year, and when their territories are submerged, these cubs often attack easier prey like children. Such factors could be contributing to the sudden rise in attacks," Singh said. In the last two weeks, two children were killed and several people were injured in similar incidents in the district....