HYDERABAD: As the dog menace in the city assumes alarming proportions, a sideshow and a hilarious one at that, is unfolding between the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The SCB has been hiring a dog squad with a van too from the GHMC for the last four months as it receives about 10 complaints of dog bites a day.“The squad has been rounding up about 50- 60 dogs a week and frees them on the outskirts of the city. But it hardly helps as the dogs are coming back,” explains S Balakrishna, chief executive officer, SCB.He alleges that the GHMC has also been releasing captured canines in the Cantonment area. “It’s the reason why the number of dogs is on the rise in the area,” he says.According to him, a plea for the supply of rabies vaccine to the Health department has fallen on deaf ears. Afzal Mohiuddin, health superintendent of the SCB, concurs with the CEO’s views. “The Cantonment is paying Rs 3,000 per day to the GHMC for hiring the van with the dog squad. We will continue to hire the squad till the problem is sorted out. We are not only catching the dogs but are also sterilising them before freeing them. However, we haven’t been able to check the menace of stray dogs so far,” he explains.For the GHMC, the issue is far more complicated.“Dog bites is one of the biggest challenges facing the GHMC. Every day, we receive 75-100 complaints. Earlier, it was not like this,” points out P Venkateshwar Reddy, chief veterinary officer, GHMC.The magnitude of the challenge could be gauged from the fact that there are over 3 lakh stray dogs in the twin cities. Of them, about 2 lakh have been caught, sterilised and freed. The problem is now more acute as at the fag end of the monsoon season, the dogs breed and tend to migrate to urban areas from sub-urban areas.Reddy recalls that the GHMC had set up five animal rescue centres in its five zones about oneand- a-half years ago specifically to catch stray dogs and sterilise them.“The dogs are sterilised and dewormed (ridding their body of parasites) and released in the same area where they were caught in the city. This is part of the programme called Animal Birth Control / Anti-Rabies (ABC/AR) recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for animal and rabies control,” he says making light of the SCB’s allegations.So, what’s the fuss all about* More than 3 lakh stray dogs are said to be in the twin cities. Of them, about 2 lakh have been caught and sterilised till date, say GHMC officials* The Secunderabad Cantonment Board hires a dog squad with a van from the GHMC for Rs 3,000 per day. It has been hiring the squad for the past four months* The SCB receives about 10 complaints of dog bites per day while the GHMC gets around 75-100 complaints per day.* The GHMC releases stray dogs on the outskirts of the city. But the SCB claims the canines are coming back. The GHMC officials say dogs generally migrate during the fag end of the monsoon season from sub-urban areas to urban areas.
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