Panchkula reports 15 dog bite cases a day

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 11

Residents are a harried lot as the stray dog menace continues to haunt city residents. More than 15 dog bite cases on an average are reported in the city every day even as the Panchkula Municipal Corporation has been claiming to catch canines on a regular basis for sterilisation process.

According to information from the Civil Hospital, Sector 6, about 116 cases of dog bite were reported in the first week of July.

Most of the cases were coming to the Sector 6 Civil Hospital from Mauli Jagran, Indira Colony, Manimajra, Sector 19, Bhainsa Tibba and Rajiv Colony.

Recently, a four-year-old girl was attacked by a stray dog at Haripur village in Sector 4 here on Sunday.

The victim, Ananya, had gone to a local shrine for public feast (bhandara) when the incident took place.

The dog had bit the girl in her face that resulted in the skin of her right cheek being lacerated, leaving her with a six-inch-long cut.

Even Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kamal Deep Goyal, had suffered a ligament fracture in his foot as he slipped while trying to save himself from the attack of a stray dog.

The incident had occurred about a week ago while he was going for an evening walk near his house in Sector 14.

Data from the Civil Hospital shows that around 2,778 dog bite cases have been reported since January this year till July 7.

In January, a total of 448 cases were reported while it was 446 in February. In March, the cases rose to 545 while in April, it was 446, in May 432 and 345 in June 345.

Civil Surgeon Dr Yogesh Sharma said most of the cases were reported from slum areas or colonies in the district.

He said whenever any person was bitten by a dog, he should wash the injury mark with soap several times.

He added that free treatment was being provided to the dog bite victims at the Civil Hospital.

Rajesh Jogpal, Municipal Commissioner-cum-Administrator, said the civic body was managing stray dogs by sterilisation. The MC has hired M/s Jayant Vet House for the the job, he added.

As per the data accessed from the Panchkula MC, a total of 7,447 dogs and bitches have been sterilised from May 2018 to June 26 this year.

He said he had asked the agency to send the picture of the dog being sterilised on his mobile phone to ensure that sterilisation was properly being done on the ground level.