Creature record / 2002
Summer 2002. Eastern Uttar Pradesh, in the grip of drought. In the villages of Mirzapur district, people were attacked out of the dark. A flash of light. A shock. Then scratches across the face. Victims described a giant insect with steel claws, a flying ball with sparkling lights, a bright red blinking object that tried to pull them away. They called it the muhnochwa. The face-scratcher. Within weeks the panic spread to Lucknow, Sitapur, Varanasi and beyond. About 70 victims came forward with burn wounds. More than a dozen people died in riots and lynchings. Police blamed an insect. A physicist suggested ball lightning. Doctors spoke of mass hysteria.
A year earlier, the Monkey-man of Delhi had gripped the capital. In the summer of 2002 a new night terror arrived in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The first reports came from rural areas in Mirzapur district, some 440 miles southeast of New Delhi. Then nearby townspeople began claiming similar attacks. That was when the real panic began. They called it the muhnochwa. The face-scratcher.