HYDERABAD: A wild boar piglet got trapped in a trap-cage meant to catch stray dogs on the campus, in University of Hyderabad (UoH) on Saturday. Unfortunately, for the piglet, officials of Telangana forest department did not bother to rescue it and fate of the piglet hangs in balance. Wild Boar is a protected species under Wildlife Protection Act. Jillapalli Ravi, PhD scholar and founder of campus based organization - Wild Lens, said, “The piglet was really scared and agitated. It was banging hard against the metal cage and as a result its nose got injured and was bleeding. As soon as I came to know about it, I informed this to Forest Division Officer of Shamshabad.”
Over the past few years there have been regular reports of Wild Boars and Spotted Deer, the two large wild mammals of UoH, getting injured or killed. UoH currently has four cages on campus to catch stray dogs which are a major menace in the university and have also been found to be hunting spotted deer and wild boar. In two years since cages are being used in UoH for catching stray dogs, more than 50 dogs have been caught.
However, usage of trap cages to catch stray dogs is not mentioned among the catching techniques for stray dogs by the Animal Welfare Board of India. As per university sources, in 2015 the UoH authorities took help of Hyderabad zoo officials in designing trap cages to catch stray dogs, following which eight trap cages were placed in the campus, four each belonging to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and UoH. Chicken piece is placed in the trap cage to attract the stray dogs.
Once dogs are caught in the cages, GHMC is informed about it by UoH and the stray dogs are taken away.
While initially stray dogs used to be caught on a regular basis in the cages, over time the stray dogs seem to have gotten clever and instances of stray dogs getting caught reduced. Following this, GHMC took away their four cages.