Seawoods, Navi Mumbai’s NRI complex, has a doggone problem. On Saturday, some residents tried to forcefully rid the 40-acre complex of stray dogs. In a complaint filed at the Nerul police by two officers of the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA), five men in a van were picking up strays when they were arrested. According to the law, only the municipality has this right. But the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC)’s sterlisation drive hasn’t commenced yet.
At the NRI complex, resident B Nithianandan, one of those fighting for the strays to be humanely treated, said, “Some residents have been trying to get rid of the dogs on grounds that they have been biting children.” He alleged that the methods they adopted included hiring people to kill or maim the dogs. “We’ve suggested sterilisation, but they are not interested. I’ve been forced to adopt 20 stray dogs (his employees and well wishers have taken them) in order to spare their lives,” the 31-year-old businessman added.
Interestingly, a week prior to Saturday’s incident, a similar attempt to get rid of the dogs saw Thane SPCA intervene with a scathing letter to the complex’ Board of Directors.
Pointing out that the law didn’t permit for strays to be relocated, Shakuntala Majumdar, President of Thane SPCA and a member of NMMC’s dog sterilisation committee, wrote any further cruelty reported will be dealt with strongly.
The letter, however, didn’t prove detrimental enough for the residents, some of whom include top honchos like Piyush Saxena, additional vice-president at Reliance. “Residents are fed up of the stray dogs and we want them shifted somewhere else,” Saxena said. He also agreed that he had hired the van, and claimed it was done to shift the dogs to a safer place. “We’ve been told that according to the law, the dogs cannot be shifted, I have no choice but to accept this situation,” he said.
