Despite having some of the cleaner cities in India, Gujarat stands tall among the major states when it comes to incidents of dog bites in the country. This was revealed in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State (Mos) for Health and Family Welfare Satyapal Singh Baghel.
Replying to a query raised by Members of Parliament (MPs) Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Bhola Singh and others, the minister said Gujarat reported 1.69 lakh dog bites or an average of 19 such incidents per hour last year. This makes it rank fifth (along with Karnataka) on the list of the states with the largest share of dog bites in India. Maharashtra tops the list with 45 bites per hour average, followed by Tamil Nadu averaging 42 dog bites an hour.
The only saving grace for Gujarat is that it has seen a constant decline in reported dog bite incidents over the last few years, according to official data. In 2020, the number of reported cases was 4.31 lakh, which declined to 1.92 lakh in 2021 and further came down to 1.69 lakh in 2022.
Last year, Gujarat stood at 4th place after Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal in such cases.
However, dog experts say incidents only rose in 2022. They said the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) reported over 58,000 cases in 2022, which was about 7,500 more than the 2021 figures of about 51,000 dog bites. There was a spike in cases from November to February, which was the breeding season of dogs and hence they got protective of their offsprings, leading to more aggressive behaviour, the experts added.
Many feel, more awareness is needed for rabies vaccine plus the census of stray dogs should be done for implementation of population control measures, so that man-animal conflict could be reduced. Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and other major cities of Gujarat are working to find a solution, sources said.
The government had last year said it had launched the National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) for the prevention and control of rabies and the local bodies were implementing the Animal Birth Control Programme as well.
Further, the Animal Welfare Board of India had issued an advisory dated 17.05.2022 for the adoption of community animals to reduce the man-animal conflict.
In addition, the government had last year shared the details of the organisation given permission for conducting sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs across the country. Yash Domestic Research Centre, Goal Foundation, People for Animals, and Sanskar Education Trust had been granted such permission in Gujarat.
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