Dogs are humans’ best friends. They guard us day and night. They act as companions to many; and are deeply loyal to their masters. They have their appreciable sides. All of these do not necessarily mean they should be let loose in the streets. The Supreme Court had a point when it ordered removal of street dogs from the Delhi NCR Region and their relocation from streets to shelters at the earliest. To many animal lovers, this however has come as a provocation. The court has its reasons; animal lovers have their reasons too. Between these, it is important that life remains normal in our streets. Fact is, dogs create a law and order problem. The need is to see how best this can be overcome without hurting the canine population.
Maneka Gandhi, prominent animal rights activist, has a point. As she said, if you remove stray dogs from the streets in the national capital region, dogs from neighbouring states would come and take the situation back to square one. Her citation of an experience in Paris in the 1880s is educative. When they removed dogs and cats from the city, rats invaded the French capital. In India, street dogs are a nuisance. Pedestrians, morning walkers/joggers, those who move around at night in urban or rural areas are all risking their lives due to the aggressiveness of dogs. If humans are aggressive, they are tackled by law. Not so for dogs. They invade public places, railway platforms, bus stations, and almost every place other than gated communities and unprotected areas. Their excreta is spread all over city streets, mainly in metropolitan areas like Kolkata, Mumbai, or Delhi’s roads. Those who travel by cars are unaffected by this, while the pedestrians and scooterists are worst-hit.
Dogs, per se, are not the only problem that humans face from animals. There are states in the North East where human-elephant conflicts have led to loss of human lives and intrusion into agricultural fields. For farmers living in areas close to forests, these are a nightmare. The forest department has a policy to compensate families that have been attacked by animals but more often than not, the payment takes years, getting caught as they are with red tape and bureaucratic apathy. Many victims get nothing. Notably, dogs are having a different status in some north-eastern states, where tribal customs permit their being killed for meat. In some states, cows are killed for meat, while the Hindus mainly in the northern states attach divinity to them. Courts cannot tackle such socio-religious customs either way. There cannot be a uniform law spanning all communities, regions and societies in dealing with human-animal conflicts. If there are laws, implementation would be a problem. Dogs roaming around public places and attacking humans pose serious problems as they could infect humans with deadly rabies about which the apex court is seriously concerned; and rightly so. It is for the government to address the issue with all seriousness. Propriety demands as much. Vacillation cannot be a state policy.
