On Monday, September 11, the issue of the increasing menace of dog bites and attacks by stray dogs in India was discussed in the Supreme Court of India. “This is becoming a menace,” said Justice PS Narasimha during a court session in the presence of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The discussion initiated after Advocate Kunal Chatterjee appeared in the court with an injured hand. When asked by the CJI DY Chandrachud, he said that he was attacked by 5 dogs and was badly hurt. The CJI then expressed his concern and said that the registry could look into the case if the lawyer needed any kind of medical attention. “This is becoming a menace,” added Justice PS Narasimha.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta recalled the horrific incident of a 14-year-old boy from Ghaziabad who lost his life one and a half months after being brutally bitten by a dog. “There was a case in UP.. a boy was bitten by a dog.. he got rabies.. he was seen in the lap of his father dying,” Mehta said adding that the father of the boy could be seen helpless.
Amid all this, the CJI added that one of his law clerks was also attacked by a dog while parking his car. After this, the injured advocate, Kunal Chatterjee asked the Supreme Court to take suo Motu cognisance of the rising dog bite cases.
Several incidents of stray dogs attacking passersby, including children, have been reported from several cities of Uttar Pradesh. As reported earlier, children have been leaving their homes with a stick in hand, fearful of dog attacks.
On September 5, a 5-year-old girl was dragged from her home in Amroha by the dogs and was brutally attacked. The minor was rescued only after the mother of the girl screamed for help gathering the neighbours. The girl was then shifted to a hospital for treatment but no anti-rabies vaccine was available. The girl was then provided with the vaccine by one of the neighbours who had got the vaccine for himself after he was attacked by a dog.
A 70-year-old retired doctor was bitten to death by a pack of dogs while out on a morning walk on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus in April of this year. Last year, strays killed a five-year-old girl in Agra, while dogs killed a 12-year-old boy in Bareilly in May.
Reportedly, on September 9, the Ghaziabad administration issued an advisory on what to be done and not done in dog bite cases after 25 dog bite cases were reported in a single day in the city. Copies of the said advisory were sent to government departments and MLCs, Village Chief, RWA, and NGOs.
Further, in June this year, the Supreme Court issued a notice on a plea seeking permission for euthanising extremely dangerous stray dogs in the wake of the incident in Kerala where a minor was bitten by stray dogs. The young child’s postmortem report revealed the awful nature of the attack, with bite marks and scratches visible all over his body, including deep injuries behind the neck and ear, and a portion of the leg was also bitten off by the stray dogs.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every year, more than 55,000 individuals die as a result of dog bites due to a lack of awareness about the importance of seeking medical attention after a dog bite. The majority of these deaths occur in Asia and Africa. India is a rabies-endemic country, accounting for 36% of global rabies deaths.
Notably, a report by Times of India from July 2023 stated that around 307 persons died of rabies in India in the year 2022.