Stray dog population above 1.20 Lakh in City; only Sterilization Centre is not sufficient

MASROOR AHMAD

BUDGAM: Last week a big and unforgettable tragedy has struck a Batamaloo family after a 12-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries at Children’s Hospital, Bemina days after falling into a drain while being chased by stray dogs.
According to his father, stray dogs chased Ahmad Bin Javeed, a 6th standard student from Baraan Pathar area of Batamaloo Srinagar along with other kids when he fell into a drain and was admitted to hospital on May 28.
Though he was rescued from the drain, but he lost his battle of life after two weeks.
Veterinary and animal care takers and experts said, delay in completion of much awaited Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres in Srinagar city is basic cause of these incidents.
Lok Sabha Member from Sultanpur UP and renowned animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi recently visited Srinagar and assured to the common people that now you will witness a disciplined dog sterilization programme and within one year positive results will be seen on grounds.
Officials of the Animal Birth Control centre Shuhama Srinagar provided a tentative data to the State Times that, 10 to 12 dogs are being sterilized in a day.
“While number of dogs in Srinagar is over 1.20 lakh and it is not easy job to mass sterilization when we have only one centre. It should be around 100 sterilisations a day while on ground the operations happen in just hardly two digit at a single centre in Shuhama,” he said.
So far, only one centre operated by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) is functional in Srinagar’s Shuhama. The second centre in the Valley at Tengpora with capacity of 60 sterilisations a day, should have been completed by 2020 but has been registering inordinate delays.
Kashmir Valley recorded 6,800 animal bite cases, over 5,700 (80%) stray dog bite cases, from April 1 last year to March 31, highest in the past three years. In the past six years, the Kashmir valley has witnessed 37,467 animal bite cases, 72% or 26,742 of them in Srinagar alone.
Health experts said, there have been regular complaints of dog bites particularly targeting young children ,the valley was shocked after pictures of an 8-year-old boy from south Kashmir’s Awantipora with dog bites and stitches all over his body and injuries even in his lungs became viral on social media. What could be more horrendous and a human rights violation when a pack of 20 dogs tried to attack a young boy in Awantipora.
“The menace of dog bites is a universal phenomenon. “We also want mass sterilisation but that can happen after work on other centres is completed,” he said.