Army of officials ‘ineffective’ as large rural area limits reach
Administration is now relying heavily on forest department officials
LUCKNOW: The Sitapur district administration deployed an army of government officials, from lekhpal to sub divisional magistrates, to check the incidents of feral dog attacks after three children were killed by dogs on May 1.
Despite this huge deployment, dog attacks continue. Three other children were killed in similar attacks the same week in the district. The seventh killing occurred on Sunday taking the death toll to 13 since last November.
While the unabated dog attacks have raised a question on the effectiveness of the administration’s efforts, the administration says it has limitations.
“The area from where these feral dog attacks are being reported is very large and comprises primarily of rural areas. The rural set-up limits our reach and slows down response,” said Sitapur district magistrate Sheetal Verma.
Apart from the 22 villages which are most affected by the attacks, district officials have also marked 26 other villages, where sightings of these dogs were reported, for their operation. This has increased the affected area to be over 30 sq km. The expanse of the area even made the drones deployed by police useless.
The marked areas have limited road connectivity and are mostly covered by fields. This makes it difficult to track the dogs once a sighting is reported. “In many cases the dogs manage to flee from the area before we reach there. It is like chasing a rat in a room cramped with furniture. You know it’s there but it’s difficult to reach,” said sub divisional magistrate (SDM) of Sitapur PK Awasthi. He handled the ongoing operation on Monday, which is being directly monitored by the DM.
Because of their limited experience in handling such situations, the administrative officials are relying heavily on officials from the forest department. “A total of 40 officials of the forest department have been deployed for the operation to curb the attacks of feral dogs,” said Anirudh Pandey, DFO, Sitapur. “The officials have been divided into eight teams under a regional forest officer. These teams are primarily involved in providing technical know-how about the behaviour of dogs in order to trace and capture them,” the officer added.
Total system deployed for total control
Apart from the administrative mechanism, the district administration has roped in the existing educational and panchayat raj system to tackle the problem of dog attacks. “All school teachers have been asked to give a briefing to students about the behaviour of feral dogs to avoid such attacks on them. The same information is being provided to adults by local panchayats,” said the DM.
The administration has also hired drummers to alert villagers about the dog attacks and urge them to not leave their children unattended.
“All the officials involved in the exercise have been asked to provide updates about their activities on a regular basis. This will help us mark specific regions where these dogs are being sighted and gradually narrow it down as days go by,” the DM said.