In the last few years, cases of dog bites have increased rapidly in the country, but according to government statistics, the number of stray dogs in the country has decreased.
An innocent child died due to a dog attack in a society in Sector 100 of Noida yesterday, i.e. on 18 October. In fact, a stray dog seriously injured a 7-month-old child in Lotus Boulevard Society. By the time people came to help him after hearing the noise, the child was badly injured. After which he was admitted to Yatharth Hospital in Sector 110, where the child died.
Apart from this incident, a stray dog had bitten a woman badly and injured her on 10 October in Prateek Laurel Society in Sector 120 of Noida. She had to get eight injections. Apart from this, two women had also fainted due to dog bites on 26 September.
These are some incidents of the last few days, but videos of dog attacks keep going viral on social media every day. These attacks include not only stray dogs but also pet dogs.
Just on October 12, an 11-year-old child was fatally attacked by a Pitbull breed in Sector-23 of Noida. The child injured in the attack survived after getting 200 stitches. This is not the first case of a pet dog attacking a human in Delhi NCR from UP in recent times. Earlier also, in Lucknow, UP, a pet Pitbull dog had badly scratched its 82-year-old mistress. After this she died.
In view of the increasing terror of dogs in the last few months, the Supreme Court on October 12 has sought information from the Animal Welfare Board about the 7-year data of the states and major cities most affected by the destruction of dogs and the measures taken to stop it.
According to the data, last year i.e. in 2021, every day other animals including dogs are biting 19,938 people. At the same time, according to a WHO report, the cases of people suffering from rabies have also increased worldwide. 99 percent of these people are falling prey to this disease due to dog bites. According to WHO, every year 20,000 people die in India due to rabies infection.
Talking about other pets apart from dogs, the number of domesticated animals including cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs is 19.24 crores. Among all these animals, the number of cows alone is 14.51 crores. In comparison to other countries, Rajasthan has the highest number of cows (23 thousand), followed by Maharashtra (18 thousand), Uttar Pradesh (16 thousand), Bihar and Gujarat (11 thousand).
The terror of dogs is increasing
Vishal Tyagi, who has been working in a shelter in Noida for the last 3 years, said that keeping dogs has become a trend these days. People living in every second house have some animal or the other. Apart from this, animal lovers also feed and take care of the stray dogs of their locality. But their number has increased so much that they do not hesitate to attack people at night or alone. Now these dogs are attacking children, elderly and women and people are afraid to even leave their homes.
Animal doctor Arun said that many such incidents are coming to the fore where pet dogs are attacking their own owners. Dogs have always been considered calm and loyal animals. But many times we unknowingly make our pets aggressive. Understand that you have included a dog in your family, any dog or any other animal should be given proper training to keep it, but usually we do not do this. This is one of the biggest reasons for them becoming aggressive. Apart from this, weather, keeping tied in the house, meeting less people are also the reasons for being aggressive. Understand that some breeds like Husky are made to survive only in cold weather. But nowadays people are keeping them in Delhi NCR also. It becomes difficult for such dogs to bear the heat and they start becoming aggressive.
Dog bites are dangerous
Dr. Avtar Singh of Pets Clinic located in Yamuna Vihar, New Delhi said that dog bites put people at risk of rabies and other zoonotic diseases. Dogs, cats and monkeys have the Lassa virus of rabies, which reaches the human body with the saliva when biting. He said that most people feel that pet dog bites pose less risk but it is not so. One should not be careless at all after a dog bite. People should do proper treatment after first aid.
Number of stray dogs decreased
On one hand, in the last few years, cases of dog bites have increased rapidly in the country. On the other hand, if government figures are to be believed, the number of stray dogs in the country has decreased. On August 2, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Minister Purushottam Rupala told the Lok Sabha that in the year 2019, the population of stray dogs on the streets of India has come down to 1.53 crores, whereas in the year 2012, this population was 1.71 crores. These figures have been released with reference to the livestock census conducted two years ago.
Uttar Pradesh has the most dogs
According to the same data, the number of stray dogs in 17 states of the country is 1 lakh or more. At the same time, Uttar Pradesh has the highest population of dogs among these 17 states. Whose count is more than 20 lakhs. If the report is to be believed, from the year 2012 to 2019, the number of stray dogs in Uttar Pradesh has decreased the most. In the year 2012, the number of stray dogs in UP was 41.79 lakh, which came down to 20.59 lakh in 2019. At the same time, after UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh also have a high population of stray dogs. According to the data, there is not a single dog in Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.
Dogs increased in these states
Apart from this, the states where the number of stray dogs has increased are Karnataka, in Karnataka the number of stray dogs has increased by 2.6 lakhs. Apart from this, the number of dogs has increased by 1.25 lakhs in Rajasthan, 87 thousand in Odisha, 85 thousand in Gujarat, 60 thousand in Maharashtra, 51 thousand in Chhattisgarh, 42 thousand in Haryana, 38 thousand in Jammu and Kashmir and 21 thousand in Kerala.
