Stray dogs menace has put forth the need of a concern now. Everyday there is news flash of dog bits, children, elderly not to forget the young adults are bitten by them, even the case of dog mauling have become so common nowadays, that different news portals are flooded with people complaining about the issues they face. I have been personally witness to the incident where some stray dogs almost attacked us when we were coming home from a marriage ceremony late in the night. The incident had left me in utter despair and sad and made I realize the plight of the people who are mauled or bitten by the stray dogs. Stray dogs are un owned, free roaming and shelter less dogs which live on parks, roadside, restaurants, colleges, school premises in close contact with the humans.
Thereby, making the humans more vulnerable to the dog’s attack. The problem of stray dogs is a nationwide issue with lot of other states falling to cope up with the growing menace. The situation in the valley has become grimmer with each passing day. While after every dog bite, there is always a huge public outcry, tall claims by the administration about the preventive steps to control the growing stray dog population remains on paper only, many districts in Kashmir lack a program to tackle the growing dog population. As per a report by the department of Community Medicines, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, around 58,869 persons were bitten by the dogs in the last ten years (2011 to 2021) in Kashmir alone. According to a survey, there are 91000 dogs in Srinagar city alone, making it one dog for every 12 citizens of Srinagar. This really has put forth the need for various measures to be taken to prevent the numbers from shooting up.
It is obvious that the sterilization programme has not significantly succeeded in its objective anywhere in the country let alone in the valley. This is not surprising, because it has similarly failed to achieve good results even in the western countries. Therefore, some other highly effective measures need to be taken. High human deaths due to rabies and incidents of dog bites have been reported from many Indian cities. There is evidence that in certain areas of cities, the menace of street dogs is large, leading to an atmosphere of tension and fear in the minds of the people. Besides causing the physical damage, stray dogs keep on barking at people and hounding moving vehicles, causing fear psychosis among the pedestrians.
Therefore, in such a situation, a multi-pronged strategy needs to be adopted. The first is a clear agreement that for a host of reasons, it is best that city do not have dogs roaming on the streets. There is a need for creating awareness among public, youth and children regarding the cleanliness of surroundings to provide hygienic environment in the society. There should be proper management of dumping the kitchen waste. Irrational disposal of food packets animal waste in residential areas, in the vicinity of mutton shops and open hotels is common, resulting in legions of stray dogs count around that area. In addition, there should be collaborative planning of medical, veterinary and environmental specialists to tackle the problem. Recently Netherlands became the first country in the world to eradicate the stray dogs. All this was achieved by collective efforts of the government and the people of the country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has made it clear that the sterilization and vaccination programme is the only effective method for controlling stray dog populations. In its Technical Reports Series 931, WHO’s Expert Consultation on Rabies, held in Geneva from October 5 to 8, 2004, identified three practical methods of dog populations management “movement restriction, habitat control and reproduction control”. effective removal and management of garbage, for example, would eliminate an important source of food for stray dogs.
The guidelines further state that the only way of ensuring reproduction control is a serious, nationwide implementation of the ABC programme.
Thus fighting street dog menace needs a multi-dimensional approach. As a responsible citizen, we should first and foremost stop dumping of garbage on the roads and streets, a robust collection mechanism and waste management should be in place by Municipal corporation. In addition, a policy should be devised by Municipal corporations to check and control the increasing number of stray dogs.