The continuous incidents of stray dogs disrupting Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung’s visits to government hospitals have initiated a massive sterilization campaign of the canines in the city.
During one of his visits to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and G B Pant Hospital in central Delhi, Jung had taken note of the fact that several stray dogs were hovering around the hospital premises. Even relatives of patients have also lodged complaints to him saying that on several occasions they have been attacked by these stray dogs.
‘During a meeting with the top Delhi government officials, Jung had asked them to take immediate action and look into the menace. He asked the municipal corporations to initiate an intensive sterilisation and vaccination drive against the stray dogs to prevent rabies,’ said a senior Delhi government official.
Sources in the health department said that some 1,350 vaccines of rabies are being used daily in three government hospitals. In the South Delhi Municipal Corporation area, there about one lakh stray dogs and only half of them are sterilised. In East Delhi, the number of dogs has crossed 90,000 and in North Delhi there are more than one lakh stray dogs. However, the agencies do not have reliable and authentic data as no effective census of dogs has been conducted yet.
‘Jung has also ordered for an effective census of stray dogs in a certain period,’ he added. ‘It will take more than three years to sterilise all of the stray dogs if we use the entire dog catcher vans and increase the number of NGOs participating in the operations. The dogs reproduce rapidly in many localities and their numbers are increasing,’ the official added. There are three specialised government hospitals in Delhi which deals with rabies cases and more than 450 anti-rabies vaccines are being used in each of them daily.
Every year, the three MCDs spend a heavy amount on sterilisation and vaccination of dogs but it seems to have become a herculean task to control them in any way whatsoever.