The population of stray dogs in Ladakh’sLeh town has exploded into threatening numbers, growing to around 30 per cent compared to humans, in one of the most sparsely populated districts of India.
Muhammad Iqbal, Chief Animal Husbandry Officer (Lehdistrict) told IANS: “There are around 9,000 to 10,000 dogs in Leh districtaccording to unofficial estimates at present. In Leh town, the dog populationhas grown to around 30 per cent of the human population.
“According to international standards, no city, town ordistrict should have more than 3 per cent dogs as compared to the humanpopulation.”
Iqbal said the legal mandate to control the dog menace liesbasically with the Leh municipal community in the town.
“We have taken up the challenge together with the localmunicipality and an NGO called ‘Live to Rescue’ at our dog birth control andanti-rabies clinic. At this clinic we do 10 dog sterilisations per day.Although we lack doctors, during the last two years we still managed toperformed 3,500 sterilisations.”
He said the NGO has its own dog shelter at Nang, which is 32km from Leh town.
Iqbal added that the state Animal Husbandry Department hasplanned to perform 25 to 30 sterilisations per day.
“Under the state government’s ‘Ladakh feral dog initiative’,we plan to achieve our targets to bring down the dog population by 70 per cent.
“As per the international norms, we cannot go beyond 70 percent population reduction because the continuation of the species would getadversely affected by doing that.
“In order to achieve our targets, the Ladakh Autonomous HillDevelopment Council (LAHDC) has given us Rs 62 Lakhs which will be utilisedunder the initiative,” Iqbal said.He blamed the population increase due tourbanization, tourist influx, plenty of waste food and breeding pattern ofdogs.