On July 5, four-year-old Gungun was sitting in the shade near a farmland where her parents were transplanting paddy when a pack of stray dogs dragged her to a nearby field and mauled her to death in Hoshiarpur.
Only a month before, on May 6, an eight-year-old girl was killed by stray dogs in Kharal Khurd, Hoshiarpur. Earlier in February, eight-year-old Suraj Kumar, belonging to a migrant family, was attacked outside his house at Gillan village near Sultanpur Lodhi. He later succumbed to his injuries at Civil Hospital, Jalandhar.
These are not isolated incidents in the Doaba region, which comprises 34 civic bodies spread across four districts — Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, and Nawanshahr. In the last six months alone, stray dog attacks and dog bites have grown by leaps and bounds.
Data compiled from civil hospitals across Doaba shows 29,897 dog bite cases in just the past six months, about 165 cases every day. Hoshiarpur has reported the highest number of cases at 12,821, accounting for nearly 43 per cent of the region's total, followed by Jalandhar (8,533), Nawanshahr (4,415), and Kapurthala (4,128).
Acting upon the Supreme Court's directions to curb the stray dog menace, Punjab’s Local Government Department on May 26 announced a 21-day crackdown on stray dogs. Municipal Corporations, Councils, and panchayats were asked to constitute Stray Animal Control Task Forces to remove stray dogs from sensitive public places.
Schools, hospitals, railway stations, bus stands, religious places, parks, and other crowded locations were declared "no-release zones”, with directions that dogs picked up from these places should not be released back into them. Civic bodies were also asked to establish complaint helplines, control rooms, and rapid response teams, besides shifting stray dogs to shelters within 21 days under the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023.
However, little has happened on the ground since then. Stray dog attacks continue to claim lives in Punjab, exposing the gap between judicial directives and their implementation.
Officials admit these measures are not enough to tackle the growing menace. After completing mandatory sterilisation, rabies vaccination, and post-operative care, municipal authorities told The Tribune, the strays are released back into the no-release zones because there are no facilities to house them permanently.
In Hoshiarpur, authorities have been searching for land for a dog shelter for nearly three months. Municipal Commissioner Jyoti Mattu told this reporter that a private donor recently offered land, but the proposal is awaiting approval.
In Jalandhar, land has been identified adjacent to the existing dog control centre at Nangal Shama village, but the proposed shelter is expected to become operational only by December. Until then, the corporation has no place to shelter dogs lifted from public places.
A shortage of manpower has further aggravated the issue, as local bodies don't have enough dog catchers to cater to the growing canine population. In Jalandhar, there is only one team of dog catchers and one vehicle for 85 wards.
Officials noted that 20 to 25 stray dogs are sterilised and vaccinated every day under the Animal Birth Control programme. However, this number remains far below what is required to significantly curb the city's growing stray dog population.
Mandeep Kaur, Joint Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, said, "We are expanding the capacity of our existing dog control centre, and the work is expected to be completed within the next three months. Once completed, it will nearly double our capacity to sterilize stray dogs." Kaur further noted that sterilization alone cannot solve the problem because of the territorial behavior of stray dogs.
"When dogs are picked up from an area for sterilisation, other unsterilised dogs often move in and occupy the vacant territory. When the sterilised dogs are released back into the same localities, their return often leads to territorial clashes with the newly arrived dogs that occupied the area during their absence. These conflicts make the animals more aggressive and can increase the risk of dog bite incidents," she added.
In the absence of adequate dog shelters, sufficient manpower, and faster population control measures, new packs continue to emerge, limiting the overall impact of the sterilisation programme despite the ongoing efforts of civic bodies.