Hyderabad : Following the gory incident of a four-year-old boy being mauled by a pack of stray dogs in Hyderabad, complaints begin pouring in from different parts of the city over the stray dog menace, as the state government called for a meeting of the civil authorities on Thursday to take stock of the situation.
State minister for animal husbandry Talasani Srinivas Yadav said he had called for a meeting of senior officials at his chambers in the secretariat to find out ways to curb the stray dog menace in the wake of complaints from people from different parts of the city.
“What had happened to the four-year-old boy at Amberpet is really unfortunate. We shall come out with an action plan to prevent recurrence of such incidents,” Yadav said.
On Tuesday evening, there was a report of stray dogs biting five people, including a boy, at Erraboda Colony of Hyderguda under Rajendranagar municipal limits. “The dogs tried to drag a five-year-old boy by biting his hand but he was rescued on time by the locals,” Shyam, a local resident, said.
The stray dogs did not spare even other animals. On Wednesday morning, a baby deer was killed in an attack by stray dogs at Jataayuvu Deer Park at Peerjadiguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
“The baby deer, which was roaming inside the park, came out of the gate and was pounced upon by the stray dogs. The deer, which received serious injuries, died instantly,” a guard at the deer park said.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation mayor G Vijayalakshmi said there are 575,000 street dogs in the city, of which nearly 75% were sterilised.
According to the official figures available with the GHMC, the authorities have conducted sterilisation to 163,000 stray dogs in the last three years, including 50,091 in 2020-21, 73,601 in 2021-22 and 40,155 in 2022-23.
However, the records released in 2020 show 199,000 dogs were sterilised. It indicates that only 362,000 dogs have been sterilised so far and there are still 200,000 unsterilised street dogs in the city, resulting in proliferation of stray dogs in the city over the years.
A senior official of the GHMC said on condition of anonymity that the number of street dogs has been on the rise despite spending huge amounts on sterilisation. “We are spending on an average ₹15,000 on catching and sterilisation of each dog. Yet, the efforts are not sufficient due to lack of manpower and monitoring,” he said.
According to him, lack of proper food and drinking water, especially during summer season, make the dogs irritated leading to attacks on the people. “We have deployed vehicles to catch stray dogs in all the 30 circles within the GHMC limits and we are making all out efforts to catch them,” the official said.
The Hyderabad Mayor also announced that the GHMC is contemplating starting an exclusive dog adoption programme in all its 30 circles. Every month, it wants to adopt around 600 street dog adoptions with the help of NGOs and concerned citizens, who would provide food and water to the dogs.
“At the same time, we shall deploy the civic staff in the areas where dog bites complaints are reported frequently,” Vijayalakshmi said.
The GHMC also started a helpline with number 040-2111-1111 to attend to dog menace complaints, she added.
