Residents urge authority to check stray dog menace in Noida

Stray dogs have increased in Noida and the next few months are crucial as it is the breeding season for dogs.

Residents have appealed to the Noida authority to check the stray dog menace at the earliest. Stray dogs have increased in the city and the next few months are crucial as it is the breeding season for dogs.

Noida residents say the authority is doing little to control stray dog population. (Burhaan Kinu/HT Photo)

Residents are worried because the city’s two agencies -- Society for prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCA) and the House of Stray Animals (HSA) -- engaged by the Noida authority to check stray dog population are not doing the sterilisation job properly.

“We spot five-six dogs fighting daily in our sector and they roam about the locality freely. They become dangerous and we are helpless in tackling them. We have informed the Noida authority of the problem as these dogs bite residents also,” Brigadier (retd) Ashok Hak of Sector 28 said.

“We have noticed that the number of stray dogs has increased in the past few months in our Sector 19. Last week, the dogs attacked an elderly person and chased him. We informed the agency to take away the dog,” said Suresh Tiwary , a resident, adding that the agencies are not doing their jobs properly.

In June, district magistrate (DM) of Gautam Budh Nagar NP Singh had directed SPCA to work in coordination with the city residents and upload all information about the sterilisation programme on the website to bring about transparency.

Anuradha Dogra, a member of the SPCA, said, “The Noida authority told us to vacate the premises where we do sterilisation to make way for the new agency, HSA, three months ago. Since then, the sterilisation programme has been hampered.”

The Noida authority hired HSA in April, but it is yet to start working for technical reasons.

“We are on the job to fix the problem and we have assured the residents that we will take all steps to control the dog menace,” said Saumya Srivastava, deputy chief executive officer (DECO), Noida authority.

Sanjay Mahapatra, founder of HSA, said, “The Noida authority has not yet awarded the contract to HSA. That is why we are not doing any sterilization.”