Feral dogs major threat to wildlife in Dhanauri wetland, say experts

Feral dogs are a major threat to the already struggling wildlife at unprotected habitats like Dhanauri wetland in Gautam Budh Nagar, according to experts

Feral dogs are a major threat to the already struggling wildlife at unprotected habitats like Dhanauri wetland in Gautam Budh Nagar, according to experts. Recently, a video showing a small pack of free-ranging dogs chasing an injured Sarus crane in Dhanauri wetland made the rounds on social media platforms.

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“We saw four dogs chasing the bird with an injured right wing on Saturday. The Sarus crane spread its wings and struggled to defend itself. It tried to take flight every time the pack came close to it. We have informed animal rescue NGOs and the forest department, but not much was done about it. We have not spotted the crane since that day,” said Rohit Sharma, a city-based birder who frequents the wetland.

Recalling a similar incident, Sharma said that some feral dogs had killed a Nilgai in Dhanauri two months ago, adding that they often charge at nests in the wetland.

Meanwhile, the forest department said that it has formed a team to find and rescue the injured bird. It also mentioned multiple incidents where feral dogs hunted endangered species like Blackbuck and Sarus in the district.

“Feral dogs have become one of the major threats to the wildlife in the division, especially to species like Sarus crane in Dhanauri, but no one wants to highlight this sensitive issue as it might lead to backlash from activists and dog lovers. There have been incidents of injuring or killing of the scheduled species too. Last year, feral dogs killed three Blackbucks in Maksudpur and Jewar, and a Nilgai in Surajpur reserve forest,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer (DFO), Gautam Budh Nagar, adding that the forest department is working on building the first rescue centre for the scheduled species in the district.

‘Dogs responsible for driving down endangered birds’ population’

Researchers said that these dogs are responsible for driving down the population of endangered birds like black-necked cranes in Trans-Himalaya and Ladakh, and the Great Indian bustard in central India. Regions of western Uttar Pradesh, with the healthy Sarus crane population, must be worked upon, they added.

According to conservationists, for a place like Dhanauri — with dropping water levels and more non-breeding population or the birds looking actively for partners — feral dogs bring birds under stress, affecting the possibility of pairing too.

“Dhanauri is a perfect place for Sarus cranes, however, the threat posed by dogs has sub-lethal effects which is far more dangerous because we are not able to quantify it. For western Uttar Pradesh, the non-breeding population is almost 50-60 %, which means the population is healthy. But at the same time, we need more wetlands and a safe environment for them to survive, roost, etc. Amid the threats from the dogs, they don’t get a place to rest. This is a disturbance of balance between feeding and resting,” said KS Gopi Sundar, scientist, Nature Conservation Foundation. He is also the global co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Stork, Ibis and Spoonbill Specialist Group (SIS-SG).

Sundar said that the recent evidence, like nesting in dry areas, shows that Sarus cranes are going towards an adjustment phase due to the unseasonal rainfall and land use change pattern, and the rising population of dogs now emerges as the biggest threat to the cranes.

“The increasing population of feral dogs leads to more competition for the resources, consequently affecting the birds and their nestlings for easier food options. These feral dogs are posing a threat to their future population too,” said Manisha Bisht, researcher, Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

On a decreasing population trend across the world, Sarus crane is listed as “vulnerable” under the IUCN red list. As per the last forest department census held in the 2019 summer, 80 out of 140 Sarus cranes spotted across the district were from Dhanauri.

‘India home to 60 million of the world’s estimated 1 billion dogs’

Stating that the free-ranging dogs are loosely associated with humans, researchers called for an urgent need to control the population.

“India is home to about 60 million of the world’s estimated 1 billion dogs. Many researchers and scientists reported that dogs are the third human-introduced predator which contributes to the extinction of wildlife animals. There is still an untamed conflict with scientific and rational policies in India, such as the animal welfare community in India, that has promoted the maintenance of unowned dogs in public places and even areas with the wildlife. There is an urgency in controlling the impact of free-ranging dogs on the wildlife,” said Sipu Kumar, research scholar, WII.

According to Anand Arya, a city-based birder, “Feral dogs have become a menace in Dhanauri, and much could not be done until the wetland is not protected. The forest department must speed up the process of recognising the habitat.”

The activists, however, put the onus on the forest department, saying that they are “neither feeding the dogs living inside the wetlands, nor are they doing anything to control the population”.

“The population of the dogs must be controlled immediately through sterilisation, but the forest department is not doing so. Dogs living in the wetland would obviously follow the natural instincts, just like the pack that chased the Sarus crane. The department is neither providing food to them, nor are they sterilising them. The question is: what are they doing to control the issue?” asked Kaveri Rana, director, People for Animals, Gautam Budh Nagar.