The Hindu Business Line : Dogged by strays

THOUGH the recent Bombay High Court ruling allowing the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to shoot stray dogs in emergencies has come as a small victory for the AAI, the public outcry against the order has ruffled a feather or two at the authority.

Not least because the AAI, the petitioner in the case, has come out as a callous organisation, incapable of thinking any better than shooting down the strays.

"We are not inhuman people. We also have dogs as pets. We are not keen to go out and kill them...The ruling has laid down that we should take the extreme step only in emergencies and as a last resort," says Mr Sudhir Kumar, Director.

In the meanwhile, the Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD), one of the interveners in the case, has got an eight-week stay on the HC Order.

So while the AAI has to hold its fire for the moment, the WSD has been told to remove the stray dogs from the airport premises.

However, the CEO of WSD, Mr Abodh Aras, feels that removal of the dogs or even shooting them down can never provide an answer to the problem. The AAI should, instead, put up a boundary wall around the airport to secure it from any unauthorised incursions, be it by dogs or any other being.

The case is not new and goes back to 2000.

According to Mr Aras, the HC had in June 2001 passed an interim order under which the BMC was to visit the airport thrice a week to round up the dogs and deposit them with the WSD who would, in turn, put them up for adoption.

And while the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) followed the order, Mr Aras said, the problem had come under control. However, over time, the BMC had become lax and the situation with the dogs worse.

The BMC, he added, had apologised in Court for not complying with the court's ruling.

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