Kashmir saw 37,467 animal bite cases in 6 yrs, 72% from Srinagar alone
ARJUMAND WANI
SRINAGAR, June 9: After 13 agonizing days, a 10-year-old class 6th student, Ahmad Bin Javaid received a quietus of the pain by taking his final nap in Children’s Hospital, Bemina on Thursday late afternoon.
The schoolboy from Baran Pathar area of Batamaloo lost the battle for life 13 days later, after he fell into a drain while running from stray dogs along with few other children of his locality on May 28.
Medical Superintendent of Children’s Hospital Srinagar confirmed the death of the minor boy and said that it was a case of fatal drowning with respiratory failure with shock.
Frequent Dog Attacks:
The Anti-Rabies Clinic at SMHS Hospital treated 6,855 animal bite cases during the time period from April 1 2022-March 31, 2023 all over the valley, 4,912 of them from the city alone, according to government data. The figure was 4,798 in 2020–21, 5,629 in 2021–22. According to data available here in last six years, the Kashmir valley has witnessed 37,467 animal bite cases, 72% or 26,742 of them in Srinagar alone.
For the local community, particularly the most vulnerable demographic, children, the alarming rise in dog attacks and bites in Kashmir has become a major concern. The emotional and psychological suffering endured by dog bite victims has made it clear that supportive programmes for victims as well as low-cost mass dog vaccination programmes must be put in place by policymakers. While the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has started an animal birth control and anti-rabies vaccination programme, it is crucial to encourage proper waste disposal practises and raise public awareness in order to maintain the safety and wellbeing of the Kashmiri population.
Dog Overpopulation:
According to an official data, Srinagar have reported the highest number of dog bites with 4912 cases in just one year. Sources suggest that the main cause behind this alarming situation is dog overpopulation in the summer capital.
According to Head, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Dr. Muhammad Salim Khan, The reason behind overpopulation is the waste that caters as a food to dogs. as one lakh poultry birds are slaughtered every day which generates more than forty tons of waste.
However, according to an official of SMC, a committee has been constituted by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Animal Birth Control headed by Athar Amir Khan SMC Commissioner, to effectively address the issue of stray dogs, overpopulation and ensure the well-being of the residents.
The focus of the committee is to prioritise area-wise sterilization, aiming to cover at least 70 percent of the dog population, the SMC Commissioner said.
Commissioner SMC said that the committee plans to prioritise area-wise sterilization, aiming to cover at least 70 percent of the dog population in a given area before expanding its efforts to new territories.
It is crucial to stress that the government must act now to stop the growing threat posed by the street dogs that are a problem in our UT. The cause of these serious injuries and accidents is not the presence of rabid dogs but rather the alarmingly high population of dogs.
