Civic body receives 24 complaints a day over stray dog menace

On the other hand, the city’s southwest zone, which included Sentossa Park — where Wagh Bakri Tea Group executive director Parag Desai, who died on October 22, stayed — has seen the maximum number of dogs being sterilised and vaccinated.

According to a statement issued by Wagh Bakri, Desai was on an evening walk close to his bungalow on October 15, when stray dogs rushed towards him. As Desai ran towards his residence, he lost his balance and fell, resulting in brain haemorrhage, leading to his death.

Security guards at the gated Sentossa Park told The Indian Express that five stray dogs were taken away from the neighbourhood this Tuesday.

The bungalows at Sentossa Park have individual security cabins and each house is spread over several acre, some surrounded by tall palm trees and verdant. This Wednesday evening, in the stretch of road outside the society, for around 800 m, only two stray dogs could be spotted.

Between October 1 and 23, AMC had received 588 complaints pertaining to stray dogs, averaging at around 25 complaints a day. This year, the maximum number of such complaints has been received from the western zone (1,384), followed by south zone (1,167) and north west zone (1,034).

The southwest zone, which has the residences of some of the wealthiest in the city (with a street even named Billionaire Street), had made the least number of complaints — 772 — to the AMC regarding stray dogs. Notably, this area was earlier under the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority and was only included in the AMC limits in 2020.

Naresh Rajput, head of AMC’s cattle nuisance control department, said that majority of the complaints requests for relocation of stray dogs. “We also receive some complaints requesting that the strays be vaccinated. Some complaints allege that people have been bitten by strays but when we go to the spot, we don’t get details such as vaccination card and find the dogs in the vicinity to be sterilised. Such spot visits end up in us witnessing disputes between dog lovers and those who want them removed.”

The AMC officials said they usually resolve complaints within 24 and 48 hours. Animal Birth Control Rules do not permit relocation of stray dogs on the ground that it amounts to cruelty. They can only be taken by the civic body for sterilisation and/or vaccination and then have to be dropped off at the same place from where they were picked up.

Over the years, calls for curbing the dog population in the city have grown louder, with a public interest litigation (PIL) also pending before the Gujarat High Court. The PIL, moved in 2020, has pointed out that as per AMC data, around 60,300 people were attacked and bitten by stray dogs in Ahmedabad between November 2017 and October 2018. Incidents of dog bites and attacks had doubled during this period, compared to 2010, when 30,026 such cases were recorded in the calendar year. The PIL also stated that as per AMC data, the dog population, as of June 2018, stood at 1,48,467.

The AMC, however, has claimed that the dog population has been decline owing to sterilisation and vaccination activities it had undertaken. According to AMC, adhering to the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, four organisations have been tasked with carrying out sterilisation and dog vaccination activities in the seven zones of the city. These are People for Animal (in charge of north and west zone), GOAL Foundation (southwest zone), Yash Domestic Research Centre (north and east zone) and Sanskar Education Trust (south and central zone).

As of October 23, 25,993 dogs have been vaccinated and sterilised – an average of around 88 dogs a day, at a cost of Rs 2.53 crore, AMC data showed. In the southwest zone, 6,865 dogs have been vaccinated and sterilised, the maximum number, this year.

As per AMC, “on a daily basis, vaccination and sterilisation of around 130 stray dogs” are done.