[6][7] It is extremely harmful to the vineyards of western India, and eats large quantities of coffee beans in the Wayanad district.

These solitary jackals are known as kol-bahl,[8] bhálú in southern India, phéall, phao, pheeow or phnew in Bengal and ghog in other regions.

[8] Golden jackals appear prominently in Indian and Nepali folklore, where they often take over the role of the trickster taken by the red fox in Europe and North America.

The Mahabharata describes the story of a jackal who sets his friends, the tiger, wolf, mongoose and mouse against each other, just so he can eat a gazelle without sharing it.

[13] In Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories collected in The Jungle Book, the character Tabaqui is a jackal despised by the Sioni wolf pack, due to his mock cordiality, scavenging habits and his subservience to Shere Khan.

He appears in the beginning of the book, visiting Mowgli's adoptive parents, Mother and Father Wolf, and they are clearly annoyed by his presence, since he announces that Shere Khan the tiger is hunting in their territory.