Manipur Livestock Killings and the Mysterious Predator

27 October 2018. That is the date the forest department gave for the first incident, in Chiengkawnpang village in Churachandpur district. Other reports placed it on 6 November, at the district headquarters 65 km south of Imphal. The killings happened at night. Ducks and goats were found without internal organs. Chicken and sheep carcasses lay with their internal organs dismembered.

About 10 days later, carcasses turned up in Churachandpur town. Then the attacks spread. Imphal West, Imphal East and Kakching on Monday 26 November. Kangpokpi and Thoubal three days later. Senapati was named too. In Thangmeiband, two rabbits and five fowl were killed. In Kangpokpi district, two cows died.

Nobody described the creature. What people had were fragments. On Thursday 29 November, at about 3:30 pm, Mutum Inakhunbi saw two unidentified animals in a residential area of Imphal. A homemaker named Rozina, from Khurai Heikrumakhong in Imphal East, reportedly said a "flying animal" attacked her while she was in the toilet. She was treated at JNIMS for "unusual wounds." On social media, wild stories fed the rumours for weeks.

The forest department, under minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar, formed a task force with veterinary officials. First a canine was suspected, then civet cats. The day after Mutum Inakhunbi's report, the minister inspected the bushy bank of the Imphal river. "Small animals from the mountains hunting for food might have come down," he suggested. Traps went into the foothills. Baited sites with ducks, goats, pigs and chickens were watched by cameras. On 1 December, scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun arrived. Dr Gopi G.V., Dr S.A. Hussain and Dr Salvador Lyngdoh.

Thursday 6 December 2018. The answer was dogs. The WII scientists chose careful words. Domestic and free-ranging dogs "could be responsible." Dr Gopi said "there is no links to supernatural or superstitious beliefs." They urged better waste management and control of stray dogs.

The minister was more certain. The team, he said, "have collected enough evidence to conclude that the attacks were carried out by stray dogs." He cited camera traps and video footage that does not appear to have been released, and ordered strays and uncollared pets rounded up. Wildlife had paid a price. A mongoose, a fruit bat, a Chinese ferret badger and a leopard cat were killed in retaliation.

Not everyone was persuaded. One paper asked why dogs would start attacking domestic animals and fowls so abruptly that winter. Attacks on this scale were hard to find in the record. The two cows of Kangpokpi raised further questions. The forest department's count stood at 162 livestock in 42 incidents.

No report at the time used the word chupacabra. That link came later, when Wikipedia editors listed the Manipur killings beside the legend. It fits a familiar pattern. Dead livestock. Missing organs. A creature no one could describe. And an official answer that pointed to canids.