While ensuring citizen safety is vital, removing all strays from public spaces may be impractical
The intention behind the ruling given by a three-judge Supreme Court bench to remove all strays from hospitals, bus stands and depots, train stations, educational institutions and sports complexes is laudable. As a country that suffers numerous deaths from rabid dog bites-related incidents, something must be done to stop not just the mortality but also remove the fear among common citizens who cross the path of strays every day.
The sweep of the ruling is, however, such it orders a task that would be nearly impossible to carry out. Cleaning the Augean stables might be considered a somewhat simpler assignment compared to rounding up strays even from the spaces to be thought of as dog-free zones. That hospitals must get rid of strays is incontestable, but to attempt to keep them out of spaces like bus depots and railway stations, which are essentially open spaces, would be riddled with difficulty.
Any space that sells food or snacks, or just biscuits, are places at which stray dogs congregate. To catch all of them, vaccinate and sterilise them and place them in shelters, which are virtually non-existent now, to be run by a jurisdictional municipal body or authority, is a task that would first require an enormous number of dog catchers with mobility and infrastructure backing them. And where can shelters come up, particularly in urban centres, where dogs can be fed regularly and released when they are safer to humans?
The three-judge bench examined this enormous problem of strays afresh after a single judge had ruled in even greater extremis, ordering that all strays from everywhere be rounded up and kept in pounds. Animal lovers were up in arms over such a cruel exercise, and the top court deemed it fit to form this bigger bench to come up with an acceptable order that could begin the country’s quest to contain a menace that has gotten out of hand with unfettered breeding adding up to a number that runs into millions.
Spaces like institutions and sports complexes are known to take some care to ensure that the regular strays are vaccinated and ‘sprayed’ and are also fed. They are not the places where rabid dogs usually bite people. The incidence is higher in more open public spaces like streets and railway platforms over which it would be difficult to establish any kind of control. The fear of strays is, however, understandable.
By one count, there were 3.7 million dog bite incidents reported in 2024 while a reported 54 deaths from dog bites appear to have been under-ascertained. The thought of innocent children walking to school feeling threatened by dogs that accost them and of two-wheeler riders being charged at by a pack of strays is frightening. A way must be found to control the stray dog population.
Where do we begin is a good question. Perhaps, the idea of rounding up strays, and carrying out birth control measures and releasing them in territories from where they were not taken would be a good start. Meanwhile, institutions with vast open areas can be tasked with ensuring that they do not pose a threat to the students, faculty and staff. There is a role for a lot of people in the larger national effort to ‘leash’ this menace. The fundamental right to life and safety of citizens is sacred. To rein in millions of dogs is, however, too complex a task and cannot be achieved by being dogmatic about it.
