7-year-old boy mauled to death by stray dogs in Nabha

PATIALA: Days after a five-year-old girl was mauled to death in a Sangrur village, a seven-year-old boy was attacked by stray dogs at Mehas village in Nabha segment of Patiala district on Saturday afternoon. The boy died at PGI, Chandigarh, early on Sunday morning.

Manish, 7, was the son of migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh who worked at a brick kiln in the village.He had gone to pluck mangoes from a tree near the brick kiln when a pack of dogs pounced on him.
Sources said the boy tried to run away but was dragged by the dogs, at least seven, into the fields and mauled. Some passersby noticed the boy being attacked by the dogs and they rushed to his rescue. However, by then the boy had been bitten all over the body and was bleeding profusely.
Manish’s parents rushed him to a hospital in Nabha, from where he was taken to Rajindra hospital in Patiala and then to PGI in Chandigarh. He died of excessive bleeding around 2am on Sunday morning.
Deputy commissioner Kumar Amit said the matter was being looked into and administration would check the rising number of canines, especially in the rural areas. Mehas resident Balwinder Singh claimed repeated complaints to local officials for action to check the growing number of stray dogs in the village had remained unheeded.
‘Petitions before PSHRC, court failed to yield result’
Punjab officials maintained that dog sterilization was being carried out across the state and anti-rabies vaccine was also being provided at all government hospitals for free.
The chairman of the Society for People’s Welfare and Awareness (SPWA), which had filed separate petitions before the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) and a local court seeking directions to the authorities concerned to put a check on the rising number of stray dogs in the state, said both the petitions failed to yield any result.
SPWA chairman Dr D S Bhullar told TOI, “After the PSHRC sought a report from the state government on the petition, the government initiated a sterilization drive which ended abruptly following protests by animal rights groups. The petition in the local court seeking compensation for the dog bite victims was also dismissed, claiming no such provision could be made under the law.” He said his NGO would seek the direct intervention of chief minister Amarinder Singh to address the problem, which had now attained alarming proportions with more than 300 dog bite cases being reported every day and two deaths within a span of five days.
Meanwhile, in Amritsar, a 65-year-old man was mauled to death by a stray bull near Durgiana Abadi on late Saturday evening. Rohan Mehra, son of the deceased said his father had gone for a daily stroll at around 9.45 pm on Saturday when a stray bull attack left him severely injured, resulting in his death.
The issue of stray cattle in the holy city again hit the headlines a few days ago, after state local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had a close brush with a stray bull during his visit to Durgiana Temple.