Hyderabad: Packs of stray dogs are still continuing their reign of terror on many streets in towns and cities in the face of periodic public outcry and officials' knee-jerk reactions to callous canine attacks like the recent killing of the 4-year-old boy in Bagh Amberpet locality in Hyderabad city limits.
Many questions are cropping up as to why the civic authorities concerned cannot check this dog menace, which has turned into an epidemic in some corners of the city. Why is the dog population allowed to grow in huge numbers? Who has to take responsibility for the poor and ineffective sterilisation of canines? What makes the civic bodies so indifferent to such a perennial problem?
As expected, the stakeholders in the issue are entering a blame game instead of finding solutions with mutual cooperation. While the local residents hold civic apathy responsible for the 'insurmountable' dog menace, the officials on their part cite a variety of problems that are cropping up in any drive against the canines.
Sterilisation neglected
For various reasons, the people's representatives in the civic bodies are found to be attaching far less importance to dog menace when compared to other issues. Their major focus has been turning on roads, drinking water, drains, realty development infrastructure and so on. Even fund allocation is meagre for canine sterilisation programmes, which need to be taken up from time to time.
Also Read : Boy, 4, mauled to death by stray dogs in Hyderabad; CCTV captures chilling moments
This negligence is despite suggestions by veterinary experts for continuous sterilisation so as to reduce dog densities in the city's streets. Once the numbers have come down, the aggressive behaviour of dogs will also be less, thus ensuring zero dog bite incidence in any given locality.
Ritualistic translocation
One perturbing allegation is that every time there is a big incident in a particular locality involving dog attacks, the civic officials are just translocating stray dogs from that locality to another place. As a result, the problem appears to be solved but it remains a major concern for city dwellers.
The Bagh Amberpet incident where the poor boy was hunted down and mauled to death on February 19 sent a chill through the entire city. The public was struck with horror after seeing the CCTV visuals of the ruthless attack on the helpless boy. But many minor incidents are taking place that escape the CCTV surveillance. Concerned residents say that unless a concerted effort is made in this regard, human-dog bite incidents will continue in one corner or another.
