The “big, bad wolf” — or at least a spectre of it — is back. Bahraich, a district in Uttar Pradesh, has witnessed a spate of attacks, purportedly by a pack of wolves, with at least ten persons (mostly children) killed and more than 25 injured. Violent human-animal conflict in which wildlife and humans are injured or killed, either deliberately or accidentally, is a common occurrence across India. Usually, large carnivores such as leopards, tigers, and bears, or other wildlife such as elephants are implicated. Only rarely do wolves and jackals (often mistakenly referred to as foxes) make the news for attacking people, that too, mostly when they contract rabies and go on a biting spree before being killed by irate humans. Wolves hunting children is rarer still. The last time such incidents were reported in UP was more than 30 years ago. The headlines were similar back then. Only when forest officials succeeded in eliminating the wolves did the tragic loss of human lives stop and the sensationalism die down.