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Stray dogs attack 12-yr-old girl in NW Delhi
The girl’s family alleged that the attack resulted from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD’s) “inaction” after the civic body “overlooked” a complaint about dog menace in the area two months earlier.
A 12-year-old girl returning from her school was severely injured after she was allegedly attacked by a group of stray dogs in northwest Delhi’s Kirari on Friday afternoon.
The girl was identified as Kavya Sharma, a student of Class 4 who lives in Kirari, her family said.
The girl’s family alleged that the attack resulted from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD’s) “inaction” after the civic body “overlooked” a complaint about dog menace in the area two months earlier.
According to Kavya’s family, she was walking home with three others when a group of four-five stray dogs attacked her. “The dogs caught hold of my granddaughter while the other kids managed to flee. Scared after the dogs bit her thighs, Kavya fell, broke a bone in her left arm, and remained surrounded by the dogs for a while,” Kavya’s grandfather Yogesh Sharma, 65, said.
He added that the dogs finally dispersed after passersby heard Kavya’s cries and came to help. The girl was brought home and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. “She has a fracture in her left arm and bruises all over her body. She has also been administered the first dose of anti-rabies injections.”
The 65-year-old claimed that stray dogs are a menace in their locality and the family has complained to the MCD multiple times. “I called the MCD to lodge a formal complaint about two months ago. They also shared a complaint number with me, but no action was taken. After the incident, I dialled MCD again on Saturday and told them that it was due to their inaction that my granddaughter was suffering. The official said that they only have one vehicle to catch dogs and that too is broken,” Sharma claimed.
MCD did not respond to HT’s request for a comment on the matter.
He added that children in the neighbourhood have stopped going out of their houses due to stray dog menace.
Earlier in November, the Supreme Court had ordered that stray dogs would no longer be allowed on the premises of schools, hospitals, transport hubs or sports complexes, and directed that they be relocated to shelters after sterilisation and vaccination.
On August 11, the court had ordered the MCD and Delhi government to move stray dogs to shelters within eight weeks. The order was modified on August 22, allowing dogs to be returned to their original locations and restricting feeding to designated zones.
Notably, there are 20 authorised Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres in Delhi. While some are run entirely by the MCD, the rest are run by private, non-governmental organisations and trusts. The MCD partners with centres run by trusts for ABC operations, and is supposed to pay them for the same. Many of the centres carry out their own operations, and take in the dogs that MCD brings in for sterilisation, charging ₹1,000 per dog. The cost of housing, feeding, and medical treatment, if any, is borne by the centres.
