Residents raise safety concerns as stray dog population rises in Vasavi Nagar
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Hyderabad: Residents of Vasavi Nagar colony in Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) are at their wits' end over the stray dog menace in their area, which has reportedly risen to worrying proportions over the last several years.
Once numbering just a handful, the colony has over 50 stray dogs now.
"I am deeply empathetic towards stray dogs. However, their numbers are rising uncontrollably, posing a real risk to residents, particularly children. One stray dog living in my street gave birth to 18 puppies over the last three years. My husband was bitten by a dog a month ago," said Saritha Chitha, a resident who works for a US consultancy. "I don't want the dogs to be removed, but neutering them is absolutely necessary," she said.
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Ravinder Chadha, an IT professional and a resident of the colony, said people have stopped stepping out of their houses because of the stray dog menace. "During the nights, the dogs become erratic and gang up on anybody who steps out of the house, making it unsafe for us, especially senior citizens. Moreover, they keep barking in the night, disturbing our sleep," he said, adding that the stray dogs chase and hassle delivery partners and visitors to the colony.
"There are some residents who feed the dogs, because of which more dogs keep coming to the colony. I request these residents to stop feeding them. I also request Blue Cross, which has rescued and nurtured stray dogs from many places across the city, to also adopt the dogs from our colony. Residents won't be bothered anymore and the dogs will be taken care of too," said Telukunta Satish Gupta, a resident.
Govt officials said that while they have been actively taking steps to vaccinate stray dogs and execute animal birth control (ABC) programmes, relocating them would be a violation of the law. "We have sterilised over 80% of the stray dogs in the city, and we have been quick to address complaints too. As per the ABC (Dogs) Rules 2001, we have to release the dogs after sterilisation back to where we took them from. So, if residents are demanding for the stray dogs to be relocated to another area, it's simply not possible," said Abdul Wakeel, chief veterinary officer (CVO) of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
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