Stray Dog Terror
A menace for unprivileged but show of compassion amongst a governing elite surrounded by high walls and barbed wire
Stray dog population in Kashmir has gone out of control and dog bites are a major public health issue. Absence of a noticeable scientific population control mechanism coupled with the a non existent waste management has led to a crisis which is taking a heavy toll on the life of gentiles, the general public. Stories of morbidities and fatalities burgeoning from this menace are reported almost on a daily basis by the local media. But our governing elite is unmoved by this macabre situation, for they live in paradises surrounded by high walls and barbed were.
Then why this column? It is a genuine query that shall arise in the minds of the readers, if this opinion piece finds any at all.
We live in an age where we are relentlessly subjected to saturation bombing of images and words through a myriad of media platforms. The current world has made a historical shift towards ultra-right. Politicians across the identities have a common methodology– excite the baser human instincts and create a certain kind of excitement in the demographic zones of their operation.
The power in this new order of the (ultra) nation states is shared by an elite comprising the executive, the parliament and the judiciary. This syndicate of the upper layers of the social pyramid controls the content of the media as well. It is akin to the interest group existing in the bestselling Anarchy: by British journalist turned historian, William Dalrymple.
The media which is ideally meant to act as a watch dog and hurt this privileged authoritative class has assumed the role of petty bards for this syndicate of the trio with new Jagath Seth’s of the Dalrympl’s Anarchy. The Jagath Seth’s have now become an undisguised fourth partner in the state power and its structure. They have a common interest in creating ‘Anarchy’. They craft disorder and exploit the dividends of the West Ministerly democracy. It is a weapon they use to ensure a brute and relentless rise of their syndicate— the Dalrymple’s Company. They “legitimizes the whole scale destruction of institutions in the name of anti-elitism” and “insists on recognizing just one kind of citizen as normal”
In India how many gentiles or the ordinary people are mauled a day by the prowling dogs, is a matter of their least concern. Because they live in an alien world. Their places of work, their markets, their schools, their lanes and their residential areas are segregated. Their world has no stray dogs. They domesticate dogs. Their status symbols and “kindness” is reflected in Indian Pariah, Labrador, German shepherd, Pug, Pomerian and many other varieties. The society created by the Company of the trio brag in the costliness of their dogs. The dog a senator, a minister and the judge of this modern democratic state with ultranationalist politics reflects his and her urbanity and status. Hi fi dogs are integral to their social identities.
In India till 2000 the Indian state maintained an ecological equilibrium and limited the impact of the baring fangs of the stray dogs by resorting to culling. But the elitists came up with a Western idea of protection of animal rights. They propped up NGO’s clamouring for animal rights protection. They idealised un-executable Western methodologies of stray dog population control and their enterprise fed on state funds.
By 2001 this compassionate high society and their NGO industry enacted a law banning culling of street dogs. As one bitch procreates 15 puppies a year, India is now grappling with dog population explosion and high incidence of rabies.
According to a New York Times report, the country leads the world in being the largest street dog populated nation. It has about 62 million stray dogs, and the largest number of rabies deaths in the world. An estimated 20000 deaths occur in the poor south Asian nation a year on account of rabies. But the fatalities occur among the gentiles, Alfred Tennyson’s ‘children of the lesser god’.
The situation is very bad in Kashmir with almost 6800 patients reporting to the Anti-Rabies Clinic for management of animal bites at the Government Medical College Srinagar. The number of people mauled by the stray dogs reporting to the peripheral hospitals of the Valley could not ascertained due to the non-cooperation of the officials of the Directorate of Health.
How weird is the attitude of the partners of the Dalrympl’s Company. They were in unison in fighting the Covid 19 virus, also a life. They eliminate everything whatever comes in the way of their interests. They do not falter in orchestrating orgies of violence for attaining and perpetuating their interests. But when it comes to killing of free roaming dogs for the sake of ordinary citizens, it is a serious punishable office.
Rashid Paul is Associate Editor at Kashmir Images.
He can be reached at [email protected]
