MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court issued notices to the union and state governments on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction to the authorities to prevent stray dog menace in the state.
A division bench of Justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri was hearing a petition filed by KK Ramesh of Madurai, seeking to remove stray dogs from public places throughout the state, implement the provisions of Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules for effective results on a long term basis and initiate vaccination and sterilisation drives.
The petitioner submitted that due to stray menace, accidents often occur and mostly affect children and the elderly. Some were affected by dog bites and scratches, which causes 99% of human rabies cases. This can be prevented through dog vaccination and bite prevention. Over 29 million people worldwide receive human rabies vaccines annually. Clinical diagnosis of rabies is difficult without a reliable history of contact with a rabid animal or specific symptoms of hydrophobia or aerophobia, the petitioner stated.
He further submitted that in 2019, it was stated in the Lok Sabha that the stray dog population went down by 18 lakh in seven years, from 1.71 crore to 1.53 crore. Globally, dog-mediated rabies causes an estimated 59,000 human deaths annually. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India accounts for 36% of global deaths due to rabies.
India also accounts for 65% of deaths due to rabies in South-East Asia. According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, almost 96% of rabies cases in India were caused by stray dogs, and the menace is increasing in the state, he submitted.