Maneka Gandhi offers help to solve menace of stray animals at AIIMS

New Delhi: To resolve the problem of monkeys and dogs in the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) premises biting and attacking people and medico-staff, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi suggested that a place should be demarcated where people can eat food, as leftovers strewn on the campus attract animals.

Harjit Singh Bhatti, president, Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of AIIMS, had written to the Union Women and Child Development Minister, seeking her intervention in keeping patients and staff safe from dogs and monkeys at the AIIMS premises.

In her response, Gandhi said she was distressed to know that dogs and monkeys have increased in the campus and offered help of NGOs to deal with the dogs by sterilizing and vaccinating them.

However, she said the same cannot be done with monkeys as this has no effect on their behaviour, rather making them more aggressive when they get separated from their troop.

"The basic problem in AIIMS is easy availability of food. If this is strictly monitored, all these animals will disappear overnight. Otherwise, we can keep removing dogs and monkeys but they will be replaced overnight by new groups. Is it possible for you to do anything about the food," she asked the hospital.

In addition to demarcating areas for eating in the open, Gandhi suggested that audio messages be played through loudspeakers, asking people that the dangers of sharing food with animals and throwing food on the premises.

According to the RDA's letter, around three-four persons (including patients, doctors, student, professors) each day and around 100 persons each month are bitten by these animals and receive anti-rabies vaccine from the emergency medicine department.