The street dog population in the HSR layout area has increased rapidly.
By Shakeb Zuber
Tuesday, September 24, 2019, |Bengaluru
Sector 4 and 6 of the HSR Layout area face the horror(you can tone it down a bit) of street dog menace. Locals around sector 4 and 6 of the HSR layout area complain about the increase in the population of stray dogs. This increase in the number of dogs has created problems for both the residence as well as the shop owners. They complain that these dogs chase them on the roads and their barking disturbs their sleep at night. “The dogs are creating a lot of trouble to us… Because of the loud bark, we are unable to sleep at night. Since the past six months their number has increased almost twice in my area.,” said MrDheendayal, a residence of HSR layout sector 4.
The local dog rescue team blames the inefficiency of the Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagarPallike (BBMP) in vaccinating, sterilizing and neutering the dogs. NamrataShastry , a member of the HSR streets network, which is a local dog rescue team, said that , “The job that BBMP has is to routinely find out the stray dogs in the area, keep a check on them and sterilize them ….until Until one calls them repeatedly, they don’t show up.” .. The population survey for dogs is maintained by the department Department of Animal and husbandry. The census has not been updated since 2012, this makes it difficult to keep a check on the number of stray dogs. The BBMP hires a contract of the third party NGO to catch the dogs and check the birth control in sterilizing them dogs. Residents also complain that the Chetak welfare organization, an NGO assigned to catch and sterilize the dogs in the area, has been inefficient. Mr. Anil Kumar, a manager of Chetak welfare organization said, “When we visit the area, half of the time we are not able to catch the dog because the dog identifies the van easily with the van smell as well as the net. Also, people don’t want the dog again after it is caught even after the sterilization and people misbehave with them and because of the aggression they bark.”
The expert, however, suggests that the dog menace is a larger issue and is a result of the mistakes of the people as well as the authorities. “It is a big city problem where a lot of food is wasted and garbage generated and with that, we have a lot of dogs. So, therefore, we need two prone plans, one is managing the garbage and other is neutering a dog,” said NanditaSubaroo, an animal rights activist. The dog menace in the HSR layout area raises concerns over the effectiveness of BBMP policy for the Animal Birth Control. It will be interesting to see what action BBMP takes once the survey on dogs which is scheduled to happen later this year.
