HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court has directed the state government and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to implement recommendations issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to curb stray dog menace in the city.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, issued these directives during a hearing on a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) initiated after the death of a four-year-old boy following an attack by a stray dog on February 19, 2023, in Amberpet.
Expressing strong dissatisfaction with the actions taken by the civic body despite earlier court directives, the CJ said, “If society is unable to protect a four- or five-year-old child, then what are we worth? Are we waiting for somebody else to die? There has to be an effective mechanism to deal with this issue. Such incidents may not be repeated in future.”
GHMC counsel presented statistics on the number of dogs sterilised, but the court deemed the efforts insufficient and confined to paper formalities.
The AWBI’s memo contains guidelines for effective stray dog management, including sterilisation programmes, vaccination drives and public awareness campaigns.
The bench granted the authorities three weeks to file a compliance report detailing the implementation of the recommendations. The matter has been adjourned to December 12 for further review.