DARJEELING: The stray dog menace continues unabated in Darjeeling. On Monday night, another person was attacked by stray dogs at Toongsoong, the same place where a man was killed in a suspected dog attack a couple of weeks back. The victim, 22-year-old Sahdev Lepcha, is undergoing treatment at the Darjeeling district hospital after the dogs ripped off some flesh from one of his legs. was attacked by stray dogs at the very spot where a similar incident had taken place and is recuperating in the Darjeeling district hospital with grave injuries to his body.
Lecpha is still in a state of shock. "It was around eleven at the night when I was returning from a friend's place in Toongsoong. , I was attacked by some dogs.
The dogs, more than eight in number, I tried to get out of the situation but the dogs more then eight in numbers were unyielding and forced me on to the ground and started biting me from all sides."
On January 11, Chyangba Sherpa from Toongsoong was found dead at the same spot where Lepcha was attacked. The residents and district officials had suspected a leopard attack. But CCTV installed outside a cage to trap the animal revealed that a group of stray dogs was behind the attack. trap with goat bait by forest officials, to identify the killer revealed dogs attacking with one of them even trapped inside.
There were marks of dog bites on Lepcha's neck, legs and arms. The ferocious nature of the attack could be gauged by the fact that the dogs bit off flesh from one of his legs after ripping apart the jeans he was wearing. from underneath the jeans the youngster was wearing.
"I would have died the way the dogs attacked, I would have been dead actually felt that I would be eaten and dead by the way the dogs attacked me," said Lecpha.
Some residents of the area, who heard his screams, rushed to help him. save him he would have been dead by now.
"I heard the frail cries for help from Lepcha. Since the last dog attack, we were alert and came out to find that a group of dogs attacking Lepcha. We splashed water to shoo away the dogs, but they were in no mood to leave Lepcha. When we started pelting stones at them, they ran awaywith stones did the dogs run away and we managed to save the man," said Akhtar Ali, a local. resident whose house is just a stones throw from the attack spot.
The Darjeeling Municipality officials admitted that the trend of stray dogs attacking humans was getting dangerous. "The incident is sad. We are communicating with the district officials to deal with the situation," said Sukh Bahadur BK, the municipality's vice chairman. In fact, the municipality is not ruling out the possibilities of shooting the stray dogs.
Darjeeling SDO Kaushik Kumar Nag said that he had not received any communication from the municipality. According to him, a decision could only be taken after consulting the animal resource development (ARD) and forest departments. "We have to seek the views of the forest and ARD department to know if it was possible to shoot the dogs. But as of now no communications has come to us," he said.
U S Tamang, the ranger of the Wildlife Senchel Range, said that the forest department could not provide permission to shoot stray dogs. "The dogs are domestic animals and not wild. So, we have no authority to give permission to shoot them," he said.
He agreed that the incident was dangerous as the dogs were showing man-eater traits. "This kind of behavior is dangerous. This has to be checked urgently by the district administration and the municipality. The two attacks on two different persons has lot of similarities," asserted Tamang.
Dr Samir Chhetri, the veterinarian in-charge of Darjeeling Animal Shelter in Lebong, expressed the inability to take in the stray dogs given the inadequate infrastructure.
"We have around 24 kennels but they are used to sterilize and house the dogs which have undergone surgeries. Since we don't have a boarding facility, we leave the dogs after the surgeries," he said. O
On shooting the dogs, Chhetri pointed out, "Due to certain animal laws, we cannot shoot them. Only when the dogs have rabies or some injuries which are incurable and life threatening, we can put them to sleep."
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