Claims apart, stray dog reality bites Panchkula

PANCHKULA: Stray dog menace continues to haunt the people of Panchkula, with yet another incident being reported from Sector 7, where a 54-year-old shopkeeper has been bitten by a stray dog multiple times in his leg leaving him badly injured.
The victim - Aabid Husain, 54, a resident of Buddanpur - said that on Thursday, he was attacked by a stray dog in a parking lot and bitten in his leg several times. The dog scoured flesh from his calf muscle. On hearing his shrieks, the nearby shopkeepers ran to his rescue. Later, the victim was rushed to the civil hospital in Sector 6.
Injured Abid Husain
Even though the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC) has been claiming that it catches canines regularly and sterilizes them, the civil hospital records show that on an average, over 10 cases of dog bite are reported every day in the district.
Most of the cases coming to the Sector 6 civil hospital are from Manimajra, Mauli Jagran, Indira Colony, Bhainsa Tibba, Sector 19 and Rajiv Colony.
In a case late last month, a four-year-old girl was attacked by a stray dog in Haripur village in Sector 4. The dog had bitten the girl in her right cheek which left her with a six-inch scar on her face.
Around 3,000 dog bite cases have been reported since January this year, according to the civil hospital data. In January alone, a total of 448 cases were reported, while in February it was 446. In March, the number of cases rose to 545. In April, it was 446, 432 in May, 345 in June and over 300 in July.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr. Yogesh Sharma said that most of the cases were reported from slum areas or colonies in the district. He said that whenever any person is bitten by a dog, he should wash the injury marks with soap several times, adding that free treatment is being provided to the dog-bite victims at the civil hospital.
MC commissioner Rajesh Jogpal, however, said that the civic body has been keeping a check on the canine population through sterilization. It has hired M/s Jayant Vet House for carrying out their sterilisation. A total of 7,447 dogs and bitches have been sterilized since May 2018 till June this year, he said citing the Panchkula MC data.
"As per law, the dogs cannot be lifted or relocated. So, Panchkula MC is duty-bound to release the dogs in the same area from where they are picked up for sterilisation," said Jogpal.
Panchkula is all set to get a stray dog rescue and rehabilitation centre by year-end, as work on the facility - Kennel House - is going on in Sukhdarshanpur village near Barwala, 15 km from the city, at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore, he said. The MC has also set up a counter at the Sector 6 civil hospital, where a consultant has been deputed to assist and counsel people in cases of dog bite.
In April, a senior citizen here was forced to run from pillar to post for two hours to get a dog-bite vaccination. He couldn't go to Haridwar to immerse the ashes of a departed relative.