Dog menace

 On Monday, the Supreme Court of India, with its offices in the center of New Delhi ruled that the current legal practices for taking care of the city's stray dog population were inadequate. Within eight weeks, the court declared, all strays must be rounded up and detained permanently in shelters.

Great initiative and directive from the judiciary. But extremely difficult to implement in a country where government isn't the solution, rather the problem. Stray dog problem isn't something new. It has existed for decades. When their population grew, as usual the inept government of India not only slept, it became increasingly corrupt.

Reminded me of this incident from my college days. One late winter evening in Bhubaneswar I was bicycling back to my house after finishing my tutorials at the residence of our chemistry teacher Mr. Raghunath Panda. After crossing the railway tracks near SISHU BHAVAN - MAUSIMA CHOWK (those days there road arteries of Bhubaneswar were yet to be chocked with traffic cholesterol, so no bypass in form of flyover was needed). Suddenly the chain of my bicycle came out. I managed to put it back on the axle. No sooner I resumed my journey back home, than a crackling noise started coming out from the chain rubbing itself with the protective metal cover. Close to 9 PM there was hardly any traffic (not unusual those days on a wintry night when the city of temples was still a sleepy township of salaried people). Thinking of procrastinating the repair of my bicycle to next morning, I cranked on, sure of not getting  noticed.

Or so I thought. There were plenty of pariah dogs snoozing nearby who were soon alerted out of their slumber by the noise. Half a dozen of them gathered, baring their fangs and barking they approached me. I chugged on, switching between fast pedaling and  keeping my legs parallel to the ground like a gymnast performing parallel bar to avoid getting bitten. But more than their bite what bothered me was the harrowing specter of getting 14 injections (shots) in my navel (it was how the anti-rabies vaccine were  administered those days).

Luckily for me from a dimly lit corner came my savior, my Hero, the Knight in Shining Armor - in form of an egg vendor who wrapping up to close his stall, ready to call it a day. Lifting his LUNGI and swinging a stick he chased those canines away. I breathed relief. After profusely thanking him, I resumed my journey, thankfully reaching home without any further mongrel chase. That was the closest call I ever had with a canine in my life. A few years back my father was bitten by a stray dog during his morning walk. Since then he, along with his walking companions carry a stick for self diffence.

Not long ago, I read the news about a 10 year old kid mauled to death by a pack of dogs in Bangalore. Though I am all for animal rights and completely against the cruelty towards animals, I believe something must be done to alleviate the stray dog menace, whose population in India run into several millions and millions more are bitten by them every year.

I am an animal lover and do not favor taking the life of any animal, even if it is a snake, standing lock in step with the Animal Rights groups. Neutering them is the only solution to reduce the population of man's oldest friend and world's first domestic animal in a subtle humane way as culling them as an option is outruled. In USA which has its share of pet overpopulation and overflowing animal shelters, they citizens are encouraged to neuter the pets to keep them from breeding further. But in a country like India where millions of stray dogs flood in droves every nook and street corner, catching and neutering them is understandably a herculean task.

Hope after this directive from the 3rd pillar of democracy will make the government smell the coffee and wake up before it's too late. Whether GOI (Government of India) will get out from its Kumbhakarna like slumber mode (the legendary demon from epic Ramayana who was known to sleep for months) your guess is as good as mine. When a menace grows into an epic proportion and push comes to shove, I am afraid at one point they will be culled which can be very well be described using the Odia phrase - NEDI GUDA KAHUNI KU BOHI JIBA (Allowing Jaggery from the palm to flow into the elbow). It simply means, knowlingly allowing a problem to persist, until it reaches an unrecoverable stage. Till then we may continue to debate !