Invalid URL for PDF ViewerVrindavan, 2015.11.31 (VT): Since coming to live in Vrindavan, I myself have been nipped or bitten at least three times by street dogs and once by a monkey. Friends of mine have had similar experiences.
One night I tried to walk the Parikrama Marg late at night in the hope of finding the path quiet and peaceful for a meditative walk — something that is becoming increasingly difficult during the daytime. I discovered that after 11 at night, when the humans recede, the street dogs take over.
Every few hundred meters it seemed that a new pack of dogs was patrolling its territory and often coming into a loud barking contest with the neighboring tribe. Walking through these conflicting zones of control felt a bit like what I imagine it must be like walking through Syria or Iraq.
The last time I was bitten was in my own Sheetal Chaya neighborhood. Dog bites are generally treated by a series of three anti-rabies and tetanus shots, which in the private sector can cost up to 8000 Rs.
Fortunately, here in Vrindavan the government hospital, also known as Mayawati’s hospital or “The Hundred Bed Hospital,” gives these injections for free.
When I went to the clinic dispensing these shots, I made some inquiries and found out that they give an average of fifty such injections per day for animal bites — dogs and monkeys mostly — to people from Vrindavan and the surrounding villages.
Fifty injections per day means that this one hospital alone treats 5000 such bites over the period of a year. If they get only half of the victims of such attacks, we can roughly estimate 10 thousand dog and monkey bites in our community annually. This is a shocking number, when you consider that the overall population does not exceed 100 thousand.
And many of these victims are not local.
We have reported in VT that there are occasional deaths also linked to monkey and canine attacks on human beings. If tourism is to Vrindavan’s destiny, then the safety of tourists should be a consideration, and the control of excess stray dog and monkey populations needs to be a priority for the various levels of government administering Vrindavan.
The excess stray canine population not only presents a danger from biting, but also contributes to the garbage problem as the dogs are among the prime scavengers in the town.
Now in today’s Times (Amit Anand Choudhary,TNN ) we read that the issue of stray dogs has been taken to the Supreme Court. A Kerala-based child rights NGO, Aluva Janaseva petitioned the Court and Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said that state governments and local municipal bodies should be held accountable for not controlling stray dogs and victims should be compensated by them.
Every year more than one lakh incidents of stray dog bites are reported — how many are unreported ? — in the country and 11 people died due to rabies in the first six months of 2015. Children are especially vulnerable as they are easy targets.
Also from the article:
The bench also sought response on how to implement effective vaccination and sterilization for stray dogs for controlling their population. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act allows Animal Welfare Board to take all such steps as the Board may think fit to ensure that unwanted animals are eliminated by the local authorities. Section 99(f) empowers the Board to kill stray animals either instantaneously or after being rendered insensible to pain or suffering.
A lot of the problem could be alleviated by better control of the town’s ubiquitous refuse. But also many people still have the village mentality and see the dogs as a part of the neighborhood security system. So they feed them and also the children play with the puppies. Some education is needed to change people’s attitudes.
As to the immediate situation: If you come in contact with an aggressive street dog, the important thing is to not look it in the eye, turn your head away, keep still and when you start moving, move slowly. And of course, carry a big stick. How to deal with street dogs.
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