Stray Dogs: A never ending story in Kashmir?

Dog menace has become a part of everyday conversation in Kashmir. Why not? Srinagar, the summer capital, has registered the highest number of dog bite cases in India.

Over all this there was recently a debate in the region’s Legislative Assembly on canine terror.

With 3700 registered cases of dog-biting in 2014-15 in Srinagar, people are scared to move out of their houses in early morning or late in the night. Last month, two children were mauled by a pack of stray dogs. The incident occurred in Lahcipura area, a village of Rajwar, where Sobia Farooq (8), daughter of Farooq Ahmed Dar, and Irfan Ahmed Khan (10), son of Ghulam Mohammad Khan, became the hapless victim of ferocious dogs roaming freely.

Dog scare is not a new phenomenon in Srinagar. Things were grim even three years ago, but the administration never really bothered to address this problem. In fact it added salt to injury on May 1, 2012 by ordering the police to coercively disperse a group of anti-dog protesters who had assembled in Lal Chowk to press for intervention.

“The dogs are so ferocious in the dark, that I use a car to go to the masjid every morning and late in the evening, even though it is at a stone’s throw from my home,” Mauzam, a resident of Lal Bazar, said ruefully.

Although the government had ordered the municipality to sterilize dogs in collaboration with an NGO, there is no visible respite. In fact, this multi-crore project with The Humane society of India failed to deliver miserably. According to sources, a contract was signed with the NGO on 28 Sept 2013 with an objective of sterilizing 5000 dogs. But in the end, there were only 463 sterilizations.

So deep is the fear among people that they carry sticks whenever they have to go out in the morning or after dusk. Isma Wahid says that there is hardly any bulwark against this menace. “My children want to ride their bicycles but there are so many dogs in our area that I do not allow them,” said Wahid, a resident of Rawalpora, who survived a canine attack recently.

The authorities claim they are taking stock of the situation. Dr. Javiad Rather, a veterinary officer with Srinagar municipality, said that various measures have been taken to curb this problem. A fleet of vehicles have been employed for door to door collection of garbage and also to take care of poultry waste. Efforts are being made to ensure that the large uncovered dumps of garbage are removed, so that it does not attract dogs. Rather added that the number of dog bite cases have decreased from 5700 in 2013-2014 to 3700 in 2014-2015.

“The Municipal Corporation Srinagar in association with SKAUST is conducting 12-15 sterilization surgeries in a day. If things go according to plans then they aim to increase it to 40 surgeries a day and sterilize 75 per cent of the dog population in the coming years. This means that in a couple of years we could reach a no growth point,” he explained.

The number of dogs has reduced from 90,000 to around 43000 (including the dogs that died during the floods). But the threat in the ground remains as strong. A population of 43,000 dogs is vast to say the least, and despite the municipality’s efforts open dustbins are a common sight in the city. People rarely find themselves in the street without the unfriendly sight of dogs accompanying them