Tragedy struck the family of young boy Omar in Zainakadal locality when he was chased by stray dogs and drowned while he was trying to escape from being attacked. Many such incidents have been reported from elsewhere in the city taking the death toll to three within a short span of time. The number of people being attacked and bitten by the rabid dogs runs into thousands. When the darkness descends, the packs of dogs take over streets and very few people dare to venture out in the darkness for the fear of being attacked by the dogs. The streets are no longer safe for the people not even during daytime.  It is not that  Srinagar Municipality or the Civil Administration is not alive to the gravity of this problem, but they strangely seem to be  indifferent  and unconcerned except of course holding some meetings and discussing some plans which involves huge resources, manpower and which is likely to take more than a decade to get rid of stray dogs. In between how many people are doomed to die due to dog bites is any body’s guess. Why is SMC averse to the idea of poisoning the dogs? How many more deaths will make them act? Is it that none of the SMC authorities been attacked or bitten by the rapid dogs so far?  Why are they more afraid of Animal Rights Groups than the public outrage at the dog menace because they have direct access to New Delhi? If it is so then it explains their lack of concern for the safety of people and we should not expect them to get do anything to relieve the people of dog menace.

M.S.Shah
Rainawari, Srinagar

Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST