Residents kill stray after 135 dog bite cases in two days in Bhiwandi
Residents in Bhiwandi took matters into their own hands, killing a dog that had bitten multiple people due to lack of action from local authorities.
Thane: Unidentified residents from the Shantinagar area in Bhiwandi on Monday killed a dog that had bitten several people over the previous two days.
Residents said three dogs, including the one killed, had bitten 135 people across Bhiwandi, and expressed frustration with the lack of action from the Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC). The injured include more than 30 children aged 5-12, according to officials from the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Bhiwandi.
The hospital has been flooded with dog-bite patients in the last two days. “On July 7 and 8, 135 people were attacked by dogs, while in the entire month of June, 886 people were attacked. One hundred thirty-five people have been administered doses of rabies in the last two days,” said Dr Madhavi Pandhare, the superintendent of the hospital.
Residents said that the BNCMC’s stray dog sterilisation centre has been closed for several years, which led to an increase in the number of strays roaming the city.
On Monday, one of the dogs bit 30-40 people, including children from Shanti Nagar and Kamat Nagar, according to residents. Some people then thrashed the dog before tying it up to hand it over to the municipal corporation, but the dog eventually died.
“The dogs attacked children on July 7 and 8 when they were returning home from school,” said Yusuf Khan, a resident of Shanti Nagar. “My eight-year-old niece suffered an injury on her right cheek. The dogs were really uncontrollable. We all alerted each other about this particular dog as soon many of us noticed that it was attacking people.”
Hamid Shaikh, a resident of Kamat Nagar, took some children who had been bitten to the hospital. “At night, citizens and drivers face danger from these stray dogs, and incidents of attacks by some of these stray dogs have increased in Bhiwandi city. The children were bitten on the chest, legs, hands, and back. One dog also attacked a person who was on a bike.”
The dog that was killed attacked six to seven people at a time when people started beating it, Shaikh added. “It’s the municipal corporation’s fault for not taking cognisance of the matter.” The Shanti Nagar police are investigating the dog’s death.
Meet Ashar, legal advisor and manager of the cruelty case division at the nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said, “This incident highlights severe negligence on the part of the corporation. It’s truly unfortunate that both children and a dog suffered due to their oversight. The dog was displaying symptoms of rabies, indicating it was not in control of its actions. Euthanasia should not have been the solution. Legal action should be taken under section 325 (killing animal) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against those responsible.”
BNCMC municipal commissioner Ajay Vaidya told HT that the sterilisation of stray dogs, which had stopped two years ago, is set to resume soon. “The incident of people being bitten is sad, and I have been working to resume the sterilisation work soon. Despite initiating the bidding process twice to get NGOs for sterilisation work, there has been no response from the agencies. During this period, the [election] code of conduct was enforced. But now, on July 8, we have promptly directed the relevant department to expedite the bidding process, so that we can start sterilisation,” he said.