Two-year-old girl dies attacked by pack of dogs in Delhi’s Tughlak Lane | Latest News Delhi

The girl’s parents wash the clothes of local residents, and they live in a slum in Tughlak Lane.

A senior officer said the incident was reported around 7 p.m. on Saturday. “When police arrived at the scene, they were informed that the girl had been taken to a nearby hospital. Family members at the hospital informed the police that she was pronounced dead on arrival,” the officer said.

Tek Chand, 42, the minor’s uncle, said the girl had left home to play around 6:30 p.m.

“She was only a few meters from the house when five dogs attacked her. They bit her and dragged her for around 100 meters towards the boundary wall of the dhobhi ghat,” Chand said.

A man passing by on a bicycle raised the alarm, after which residents and the girl’s family, who were inside the house, rushed to rescue her.

Chand and other residents of the area claimed that the dogs were staying “by a person who lived in a neighboring bungalow”.

“About a month ago, the dogs also attacked another child in the locality,” Chand said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Devesh Mahla said a case under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered. “We received a complaint from parents. Further investigation is underway,” he said.

Investigators also said they were looking into allegations made by residents of the Tughlak Lane slum.

“There is no law on what a dog should be fed or where it should be placed. Therefore, we are seeking legal opinion on the matter,” the officer said.

The post-mortem of the girl was conducted at Safdarjung Hospital, after which the body was handed over to the family.

Certainly, strict laws govern the measures authorities can take to control street dogs. They cannot be exterminated or dispatched; there are legal restrictions against both. According to the guidelines laid down by the Indian Animal Welfare Council and Prevention of Cruelty (Animal Birth Control) Rules, 2023, a civic body can collect the dogs for sterilization, but after the operation and their recovery, they must be released in the same area. .

In July 2021, the Delhi High Court, in an 86-page judgment, clarified that citizens have the right to food and dogs have the right to access food, but at the same time, exercise should not cause inconvenience or infringe the rights of individuals. others. For this, he had asked the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to designate feeding points in areas less frequented by people and further away from households.

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi met the little child’s family on Sunday evening and said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) would discuss control of stray animal populations with the NDMC.

Oberoi said, “We will speak to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about this and try to help the girl’s family.” The place where this incident took place is an NDMC area. We asked the MCD officials to hold talks with their NDMC counterparts and the NDMC Chairman and rid Delhi of the stray animal problem. We will focus on child safety as well as the interests of animal lovers.

NDMC officials, for their part, said the dogs in the neighborhood had all been neutered and vaccinated.

“After spot checking, our team found that the dogs were operated on and vaccinated. But it was also found that temporary dog ​​cottages/shelters had been set up to feed stray dogs,” an NDMC official said. “No permission has been granted by the competent authority to construct this temporary shelter.”

A sub-committee constituted by the Delhi assembly in 2020 estimated that NDMC areas were home to around 8,000 street dogs.

Animal welfare activist Gauri Maulekhi said feeding stray animals or designating feeding points had no consequences in such conflicts, stressing that the real problem was poor implementation of sterilization at Delhi.

“There are around 16 Animal Birth Control (ABC) centers in Delhi which are virtually non-functional for the last decade. There is virtually no sterilization and awareness raising and conflict resolution activities are currently limited. Feeding stray animals makes most of them friendlier and easier to catch during surgeries,” she said.

Activist Sonya Ghosh said, “If we look at the veterinary hospitals under the animal husbandry department, there are 77 such hospitals in Delhi. Most of them do not fulfill the role assigned to them. Even if 10 sterilizations were carried out every day in these centers, the population of stray dogs would decrease considerably. The chief minister must direct the animal husbandry department to play its role properly,” she said.