For the best experience, open
https://m.greaterkashmir.com
on your mobile browser.

Our scary streets

Why can’t we find a permanent solution to this menace?
11:23 PM Jan 22, 2025 IST | GK EDITORIAL DESK
our scary streets
Representational image
Advertisement

When dog bites lead to deaths, it merits news story. When the number of street dogs increases to a dangerous level, and every now and then we have cases of dog bites, the matter goes beyond a news story. The packs of dogs on almost all our streets have made the movement of people very risky. We have had cases where children were mauled to death by these street dogs. In a recent case a teenager from Srinagar lost his life as he caught rabies after he was bitten by a dog more than a month before.

This death could have been easily avoided had the boy been given an anti-rabies dose in time. It means that the health officials would need to sensitise people on this count, and make the treatment in all the cases of dig bites available at the health facilities across J&K. Given the number of dogs on our streets, and the consequent vulnerability of people, the arrangements in our hospitals should be in a statement of readiness in an extra ordinary way.

It is so distressing that our society has almost given up on the menace of street dogs, and we have slowly accepted it as our fate. The civilian government in place too hasn’t taken any worthwhile step in this regard. Both the people and the government have surrendered before the animal rights defenders, as if there is no solution to this problem without violating the laws that prohibit killing the street dogs.

Advertisement

Another thing that the deaths of our children don’t seem to matter to all those who raise their voice if a dog is harmed! What has happened to the society and where are the representatives of the people when children fall prey to these street dogs? Why can’t we find a permanent solution to this menace? Why can’t we devise a mechanism that disallows further growth of street dogs? Why can’t there be some measures in place that save pedestrians form these dogs? Why can’t all factors leading to this unbridled growth in street dog population be eliminated? In a nutshell, why doesn’t the life of a boy, just 19, matter? The civilian government in place should seriously think over this, as it touches the lives of all people in Kashmir. It needs more than an administrative action.

Advertisement

Advertisement