Kumily Panchayat is groping in the dark to find a solution to the dog menace which came to the height of it when Raju Gounder, 55, was attacked by a group of dogs the other day.
President Ponraj Vellayappan said that the panchayat was facing a difficult situation owing to the restriction on killing the dogs. Lack of facility to implement birth control measures has also put the local body in a quandary, he told Express.
Ponraj said that the situation was tough and the local body had little options before it to control the dog menace. One of the options was to catch the dogs and drop them in jungles which turned out to be ineffective. The panchayat had done this earlier and transported around 200 dogs from here for which it had incurred an expenditure of Rs 25,000. He said that the panchayat had decided to earmark Rs 1 lakh this year to deal with the situation. The panchayat is discussing the matter on Tuesday.
Ponraj said that the most effective way to check the dog menace was to implement birth control. But shortage of veterinary doctors has made it an uphill task, he said.
With regard to the attack on Gounder, who lost an ear lobe and nose, Ponraj said that the dogs attacked him as he had vomited after boozing heavily. The dogs attacked Gounder while they were nibbling at the remains vomited by the victim, he said.
But the police had not confirmed the theory suggested by the panchayat president. Police sources said that Gounder was a habitual drunkard and had been found lying unconscious on earlier occasions.
Police said that the dog menace was continuing unabated. A woman had succumbed to the injuries sustained after being bitten by a rabid dog some weeks back, the police said.
Gounder has been taken to the Theni Medical College Hospital for specialist treatment. K C Ansari, a Congress member of the panchayat said that the present system was not effective and more result-oriented steps had to be taken by the local body.
However, the panchayat is very particular to do away with the rabid dogs for the safety of the people.
The area is strategically important for its closeness to the global tourism destination Thekkady.