Tambaram residents face growing stray dog menace

They complain that the number of strays has multiplied in the past few years and some of the residents have even suffered dog bites.

The situation is worse in Ranganathapuram, Kasturibai Nagar, Samiyartottam, Kadaperi, and Ramesh Nagar, claimed the residents. They said packs of about 10 dogs keep roaming on the streets not allowing the public to walk freely on the streets. They chase the motorists too putting them in danger.

Local residents claimed that this problem is on for more than three years and now the numbers are increasing every day. “Even the delivery persons are not willing to come to the locality for the fear of stray dogs and thus we are unable to purchase any products online in our address. Even the auto drivers are not coming inside the streets and some of the drivers who are willing to come are charging double the rate as they feel it as a risky route,” said John Kennedy from Samiyartottam.

The residents of these areas claim that they have approached the Tambaram Municipality several times to highlight the issue, but, no action has been taken so far to control the stray dog menace. “Our children and women who travel alone at night cannot walk safely on the roads since the dogs keep barking and chasing them,” said another resident.

However, a section of the residents is not in favour of doing away with the stray dogs completely as they feel having community dogs is a good practise since they will not allow unknown people to enter the area easily.

When contacted, the Tambaram sanitary inspector K Janarthanan said, “Usually, we would catch at least 80 dogs every month and after operating them we would drop them at the place where they were caught, as per the rules. If the public stop feeding the stray dogs, they will move to different neighbourhood on their own,” he said.