Gurugram: With almost 500 cases of dog bites reported each month in Gurugram's Civil Hospital alone, the fear of dogs among citizens is on the rise.
A major concern is that this problem continues to show no signs of decreasing even in the city's posh colonies.
For long there has been a major debate of what needs to be done to reduce the growing aggression among the stray dogs in Gurugram.
Accoding to a reply to an RTI query, 7,113 cases of dog bites were registered in the city in 2017. This was 1,372 more than the number of cases registered in 2016, which stood at 5,741.
The number of complaints of attack by stray animals has shown a steep rise in Gurugram's residential colonies, such as DLF township, Sushant Lok, South City, Valley View and several sectors of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).
Aggressive dogs, both stray and pets, has even become a major security issue in some neighbourhoods, where residents complaining that they fear stepping out of their homes due to lack of action by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).
"The problem of stray dogs is a huge in our neighbourhood. At night, there is always a fight between a pack of dogs in our area. Not only have the dogs in the area become more aggressive and ferocious, they even pose a risk to people whom they do not identify," said Ritika Sahni, a resident of DLF Phase -1.
Though MCG has been blamed for not tackling the menace effectively, there have also been cases filed against the Corporation for cruelty against the animals.
While a group of residents feels that there must be firm action taken by the authorities towards the problem, animal lovers have called for an humane solution.
Recently, a nine-year-old boy was bitten by a dog in Sector-56 area and the incident caused a huge argument among the residents over wby no action was taken despite numerous complaints about the dog's temperament.
As per official estimates, there are over 50,000 street dogs in and around the city.
While many are concerned over the rising population of stray dogs, there are some who show a lot of affection to stray dogs in their locality.
Besides feeding the dogs from time to time, some residents have personally financed the vaccination of these animals, and even got them sterilised. There are several Gurugram residents who, in collaboration with NGOs, are setting up dog shelter homes.