Srinagar registers 16,000 dog bite cases in last 3 Years

“It is about 100 more than 2014-15 when 4917 incidents were reported at the same clinic. As many as 6014 dog bite cases were recorded during 2013-14,” said an official.

During the past three years, about 16,000 people have been bitten by stray dogs in the summer capital, official data reveals.
The data reveals that 5000 dog bite cases were recorded at the Anti Rabies clinic at the SMHS hospital here during 2015-16.
“It is about 100 more than 2014-15 when 4917 incidents were reported at the same clinic. As many as 6014 dog bite cases were recorded during 2013-14,” said an official.
He informed that there have been incidents of stray dogs chasing, attacking and biting school children, aged persons, pedestrians, morning walkers and two-wheeler riders.
The official data claims that Srinagar city has seen a decrease in dog population to around 49,000 dogs as per 2011-census conducted by an independent agency–The Humane Society International—which had adopted the Lincoln index.
Previous survey by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) had the number of canines at around 90000.
It said that the floods of September 2014 also caused a decrease by around 5,000 dogs in Srinagar.
“SMC has been working on multiple strategies to control the dog menace within the city, mainly focusing on minimizing the availability of energy rich food and garbage on the roads and animal birth control programme,” said senior officials of SMC.
However, he added that it was an established fact that multiplication rate of dogs was quite high but their survival rate mainly depends on the availability of food.
In 2013, a government-constituted expert committee had advocated curtailing food waste availability in the city to control the canine population.
“If the food is available in abundance, the multiplication and survival rate will be higher. If the availability of food waste is curtailed this will have a bearing on the life span and proliferation rate of stray dogs,” he said.
He said that SMC has been constantly focusing on minimizing, in a scientific manner, the availability of energy-rich food, offal and exclusive non-vegetarian garbage, which is “generated from households, poultry outlets and butcher shops, weddings and restaurants.
“By introducing fleet of garbage collection vehicles and closing down large number of garbage sheds across the city coupled with Animal Both Control and Anti Rabies Programme (ABC-AR Programme), encouraging results were achieved regarding the resultant decrease in proliferation rate and life span of stray dogs,” he informed.