The Telangana high court initiated a suo moto public interest litigation on Thursday in response to the gruesome death of a four-year-old boy in an attack by stray dogs in Hyderabad earlier this week, and reprimanded the civic body for its alleged failure to prevent such incidents, according to people familiar with the situation.
A division bench composed of chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan and justice N Tukaramji also ordered the state government to consider payment of compensation to the family of the kid, who was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs on Sunday in the Amberpet neighbourhood of Hyderabad.
“Raising concerns over the attack, the bench demanded to know what measures the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has taken to prevent a recurrence of such instances,” stated one of the individuals named above.
The bench issued notices to the chief secretary of Telangana, the principal secretary (municipal administration and urban development), the GHMC, the Hyderabad collector, the GHMC deputy commissioner (Amberpet), the GHMC veterinary officer, and the member secretary of the Telangana legal services authority to file their counters and set March 16 as the next date of hearing, the person said.
The child, later named as Pradeep, was wandering near an automobile service centre in the Amberpet neighbourhood on Sunday afternoon when he was mobbed and viciously attacked by three stray dogs, as filmed by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras. The dogs reportedly attacked on him and pulled him from all sides before pulling him to a roadside nook.
He and his younger sister joined their watchman father to the centre. Since it being Sunday at the time of the occurrence, no one was in the vicinity. By the time his father and coworkers got at the scene, he had already sustained severe injuries. He was taken to a private hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival.
Meanwhile, Telangana’s minister of animal husbandry, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, urged GHMC authorities to intensify the Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign and conduct a month-long special effort to sterilise stray dogs, with a concentration on basthis and colonies.
According to a government release, the minister convened a high-level discussion on the topic of stray dogs on Thursday and stated that steps are being done to solve the issue. Home minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, mayor G Vijay Laxmi, and senior municipal officials attended the meeting.
Yadav asked the officers to identify places with a large number of stray dogs and relocate them to shelters established by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.
He noted that dogs congregate more frequently at chicken and lamb businesses due to the raw meat scraps discarded by shopkeepers, and he announced that a special cleaning campaign will begin at these shops on Friday, adding that shop owners who violated the law would be punished severely.
The officials informed the minister that GHMC has already implemented the ABC and an anti-rabies vaccine campaign to sterilise and vaccinate stray dogs. They stated that harsh measures would be used against illegal disposal of raw meat and food waste by butcher shops and hotels, respectively.
In addition, they offered to give drinking water for stray canines.
