Canine menace: Walled city areas no exception to stray dog menace, people hit

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, July 31

The holy city receives thousands of domestic and foreign tourists in its walled city areas. But the stray dogs on roads leading to the Golden Temple, Guru Ka Mehal and other tourist places irk visitors. The Tourism Department often receives complaints from tourists regarding the stray dogs. “We have raised the issue with the civic authorities about the presence of stray dogs near tourist places in the walled city but to no avail. The tourists, especially foreigners, often panic when they find stray dogs in the streets,” said a tourist guide.

Not just tourists, even locals residing in densely populated streets of the walled city face the dog menace as packs of canines can be seen roaming around. Several cases of dog bite have been reported in the past. Most of the time, it was the children who were targeted by the dogs.

“The stray dogs turn restless because of heavy traffic and noise pollution in inner city markets. When someone teases them, they get agitated and sometimes bite commuters. With the increasing population of stray dogs, they also face scarcity of food. Only a few residents regularly feed the dogs, otherwise everyone tries to shoo them away. The authorities should initiate a dog sterilisation drive to curb their population and also construct shelter homes for stray dogs,” said Randhir Sharma, a resident of Guru Bazar area.

When contacted, MC officials claimed that three bidders had shown interest in the project during the ongoing tendering process for sterilisation of 20,000 dogs. The work would be allotted to one of the firms after evaluation. The file has been sent to the Department of Local Bodies for vetting. As soon as the tendering process is complete, the sterilisation drive would resume at Animal Birth Control Centre.