Stray dog attack leaves retired principal injured in Lucknow’s Jankipuram
The victim, a resident of Srishti Apartment in Jankipuram, said the incident happened around 6am when he had gone to buy a packet of milk outside his complex
LUCKNOW In another dog bite incident in the city, a pack of stray canines allegedly attacked a 78-year-old retired principal of Kendriya Vidyalay in Jankipuram area of Lucknow early on Friday morning, leaving him severely injured. The dogs bit off flesh from his hand.
The victim, Vinod Kumar Dixit, a resident of Srishti Apartment in Jankipuram, said the incident happened around 6am when he had gone to buy a packet of milk outside his complex.
“When I saw a dog attacking another person, I rushed to his aid and tried to shoo the canine away and hit it with my walking stick. There was ballast on the service road, on which I slipped and fell. The dogs nearby began attacking me after this,” said the senior citizen.
“The moment I fell down, the dogs bit off 2-3 inches of flesh from of my right hand,” he lamented.
“As there was no one around, he rescued himself and reached the apartment’s gate, from where he was taken to a hospital,” said Dixit’s daughter Kanchan Shukla. “The wound is so deep that the bones are visible. Doctors have said it will take longer to heal. He has got some scratches on his left leg as well,” she added.
‘LMC FAILED TO TACKLE STRAY MENACE’
Residents of the society criticised the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) for failing to address the stray dog menace in the neighbourhood, claiming that the civic body had turned a blind eye towards their concerns despite numerous incidents.
Vivek Sharma, member of resident welfare association of Shrishti apartment, said: “We will boycott the civic polls, if the problem is not addressed.” Writing a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath on an online grievance redressal portal, Sharma suggested that dog shelters should also be set up on the lines of several cow shelters in the state.
Abhinav Verma, chief veterinary officer, LMC said a team had been sent to the area on Friday and one male dog that was caught will be sterilised. “We have been running several campaigns to sterilise stray dogs. There is no big facility where stray dogs can be kept while we’re also bound by the law of not relocating stray canines,” he added.
Harsh Raghuvanshi, a dog expert, said animal birth control and aggressive sterilisation was the only way forward. “When people come across barking dogs, they either try to run away or hit them, due to which the dogs’ defence mechanism gets activated and they become aggressive,” he said.
