Each day goes by, and the stray dog population in Bangalore is going up, and the menace posed by them increasing in orders of magnitude. The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike aka Bangalore city corporation) is mostly callous about. Recently, I read an news article, which talked about a sub-contracted Animal Care NGO, which had been drafted to neutralize stray dogs, had not been paid for a year or so, and so they were going on strike as well.
Well, all this is nothing new – inefficiency of the local government/corporation, is something, which we (unfortunately) have come to accept in our lives. We make a huge commotion when lokayukta chief decides to leave, but thats the extent to which our reactions are. Ideally, each one of us should be a lokayukta. The apathy that has grown within us, is holding us back.
Having said all of that, what brings me to write this article is not another crib on the government, or our apathy towards it, but the so-called animal rights activists, who are compounding the problem. In areas more than one, I have noticed these people bribing the BBMP not to do anything about the stray dogs. That is makes me angry. These are people who feel for the dogs, and feel it is against their (dog’s) dignity to be done anything about them. Yes, the likes of Ms Maneka Gandhi is whom I am talking about. These are people who talk their mouths off, and rush off to their air-conditioned offices in their air-conditioned Corollas. Have any of them actually tried walking on the roads? There are roads in Koramangala (why – there are alleys even in National Games Village), where if you enter into the dogs “territory”, they will form a semi-circular posse and threaten to attack you. I have seen dogs chase cars and motorcycles in other parts of the city as well. Why, recently, the times ran a story, where a stray bit the head of a small child playing on the road.
Does neutralization (the drive done by BBMP) help at all ? I do not think so. It would be another 10 years, before these neutralized dogs pass away, and by that time, new strays, would have come in. Also, in my opinion, neutralization is probably more cruel than any other method. Thats is a way, by which you tell the dog, that after the snip, his generation is stopped.
What other ways exist? Cannot the BBMP extend the model of some kind of a praani daya sangha ? There is one in Koramangala (and am sure there are others in Bangalore as well), which take care of ageing animals, who need care. Why not similar institutions for strays. Money is required for running such organizations, and let me suggest atleast two forms of income generation (and I am sure there may be other forms). There exist similar organizations in the US, which isolate the good pedigree dogs/puppies and sell them to pet-buyers. The other chief income source for this could be donations from all these so-called animal rights activists. If they truly believe in the noise they make about rights for animals (and not use this for becoming Pg3 material), they would actually donate, and also volunteer their time/energy, for such a worthy cause. What can the BBMP do? For starters, they can maybe allocate some land towards the outer periphery of the city, and allocate for this -the larger the land, the better the animals would feel. They could also run regular (or should I say restart) dog-catching vans, to collect these strays. These strays would be taken to the dayaa sangha. If people try bribing these people, these should be taken as donations and given a receipt for it !
These are my thoughts and suggestions for the dog menace. If you have any ideas, do let me know in the comments. If you know anyone (or) part of the BBMP (or any other corporation), please do take up my suggestion. Please make the roads a safer place for the pedestrians/walkers and at the same time, make a safer world for the stray dogs.
