Stray Dog Bites and Poor Waste Management

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• News Summary: Stray dog bites and poor waste management
• What do dog bites have to do with poor waste management?
• What role do urbanisation and urban planning play? 
• Population of Stray Dogs in India
• How has India managed human dog population so far?
• Way forward

 

Why in news?

• In April, a 65-year-old woman in Srinagar was attacked by street dogs outside her home. Also sitting in front of her house is a garbage collection point.
• This incident, once again, highlighted the link between urban solid waste management and stray dog attacks in Indian cities.

 

News Summary: Stray dog bites and poor waste management

What do dog bites have to do with poor waste management?

• Carrying capacity of cities and population of dogs
  • The carrying capacity — the ability of a city to support a species — is determined by the availability of food and shelter.
  • Free-ranging dogs, in the absence of these facilities, eventually get attracted towards exposed garbage dumping sites.
  • Dogs thus congregate around urban dumps, such as landfills or garbage dumps, due to feeding opportunities.
• Waste generation in India
  • Indian cities generate more than 1,50,000 metric tonnes of urban solid waste every day.
  • As per a 2021 United Nations Environment Program report, an estimated 931 million tonnes of food available to consumers ended up in households, restaurants, vendors and other food service retailers’ bins in 2019.
    • Ideally, all the waste collected should be transported to designated landfill sites.
    • However, estimates by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India show that only 75-80% of the total municipal waste is collected, and only 22-28% of it is processed.
    • The rest is dumped across cities.
  • A study found that garbage from bakeries, restaurants, and houses was the primary food source for free-roaming dogs.
• Primary source of food and Nature of dog
  • Stray dogs are fed around the urban dumps, such as landfills or garbage dumps.
  • As dog is a loyal animal, it develops an affinity towards these areas.
  • As a result, these dogs become territorial and aggressive about public spaces where they are fed.

 

What role do urbanisation and urban planning play? 

• In 2015, a study conducted in 10 Indian metro cities found a strong link between human population, the amount of municipal and food waste generated, and the number of stray dogs in the cities.
• The report concluded that the present mode of urbanisation provides enough unconfined and unmanaged leftovers. This, in turn, end up aiding the proliferation of stray dogs.
• Tepid animal birth control programmes and insufficient rescue centres, in conjunction with poor waste management, result in a proliferation of street animals in India.

 

Population of Stray Dogs in India

• As per the official 2019 livestock census, the stray dog population stood at 1.5 crore. However, independent estimates peg the number to be around 6.2 crore.
• The number of dog bites has simultaneously doubled between 2012 and 2020 (although there is a paucity of data on dog bite deaths due to neglect in the management of rabies).
• India also shoulders the highest rabies burden in the world, accounting for a third of global deaths caused due to the disease.

 

How has India managed human dog population so far?

• Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme
  • India’s response to the stray dog menace has relied upon the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.
  • Through this programme, municipal bodies trap, sterilise and release dogs to slow down the dog population.
• Rabies control measures
  • The second anchor is rabies control measures, including vaccination drives.
  • But implementation suffers from:
    • low awareness around the health implications of dog bites,
    • irregular supply of vaccines,
    • delay in seeking treatments, and
    • a lack of national policy.
• Other informal measures
  • Other informal measures include mass culling of dogs in States like Kerala or imposing bans on the entry of stray dogs in colonies or feeding them in public.
    • In November 2022, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court ruled that people interested in feeding strays should first formally adopt them and feed them in their own homes.
    • It directed the municipality to impose a fine of ₹200 on anyone found feeding dogs in public places.

 

Way forward

• As long as there is solid waste on streets, peaceful co-existence of humans and dogs will be a challenge.
• In this context, experts believe that the responsible waste management is the only solution to this issue.

 

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Q1) What is urban solid waste?

Urban solid waste refers to the non-liquid refuse generated by households, commercial establishments, and institutions in urban areas. It includes items such as food waste, paper, plastic, metal, glass, textiles, and electronics, among others.

 

Q2) What is Rabies?

Rabies is a viral disease that affects the nervous system of mammals, including humans. The virus is transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal, typically through a bite or scratch. Once the virus enters the body, it travels to the brain and causes inflammation, which can lead to a variety of symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle weakness, seizures, and eventually coma or death.

 

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Source: Explained | How are stray dog bites related to poor waste management? | National Centre for Biotechnology Information | The Hindu