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Odisha HC lifts stay on stray dog sterilisation process
The Orissa High Court has lifted the stay on the sterilization of stray dogs in the state after the government constituted a monitoring committee as directed by the Supreme Court. The state has been facing an increase in dog bite cases, with Odisha being among the top 10 states with the most cases last year. The Animal Birth Control program requires catching, vaccinating, neutering, and releasing stray dogs. Odisha has the second-highest number of stray dogs in the country.
The Orissa high court has lifted its stay on the process sterilisation of stray dogs after the state government told the court that it has issued a notification with regard to constitution of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Implementation and Monitoring Committee as per a directive of the Supreme Court.
The dog sterilisation drive in the state had been on hold in the state since July last year following a public interest litigation in the Orissa high court alleging violation of animal birth control program norms in Bhubaneswar. A PIL was filed in the Orissa High Court alleging that the Odisha government had been undertaking dog sterilisation without a monitoring committee.
The Supreme Court of India had issued a directive to all the states to constitute a state level monitoring committee for the Animal Birth Control Programme.
The bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dr. Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and justice MS Raman on Monday lifted the stay order.
The 2023 Animal Birth Control Rules require stray dogs to be caught, vaccinated, neutered, and released back.
Over the last few years, dog bite cases across the state have been steadily going up due to steep rise in dog population. In December last year, the Orissa high court had ordered the Puri Municipality to pay a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the family of a four-year-old boy who died after being bitten by stray dogs.
The National Human Rights Commission in May last year took suo motu cognizance of the increasing incidents of stray dog bites reported at the Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer in Cuttack noting that the hospital management appeared to have neglected to adhere to the Charter of Patients’ Rights issued by the commission.
Answering a query in Lok Sabha last year on ‘the menace of dog bites’, minister of state of health and family welfare Satyapal Singh Baghel informed that Odisha saw 64,642 dog bite cases in the year 2022 while it was 59,085 in 2021. On average, 25 to 40 new dog bite cases per day were reported in May, June and July, he said adding the breeding season (October, November and December) is when dogs are the most aggressive. Odisha is among the top 10 states in the country that saw the majority of dog bite cases last year.
As per the Livestock Census of 2019, Odisha has the second highest number of stray dogs (17 lakh) after Maharashtra.
The Fisheries and Animal Resources Development department runs the ABC programme in 12 urban areas - Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Angul, Jagatsinghpur, Baripada, Berhampur, Balasore, Bhawanipatna, Rourkela and Jajpur.
