NEW DELHI, July 20, 2013: Residents of Uttarkashi district that were ravaged by the June 16 flash floods in Uttarakhand, are faced with a new menace — dog attacks. According to locals at Harsil and neighbouring villages on the Gangotri route, packs of feral dogs have attacked cattle on several occasions in the past few days and even turned aggressive towards humans.

Uttarkashi DM Pankaj Kumar Pandey confirmed just one such attack that took place at Bagori village on Wednesday, in which a calf was injured.

"Forest department officials and the gram panchayats have been asked to be on watch and take action against the dogs if required," Pandey told TOI.

Residents, however, claimed that dogs had killed two calves and a cow, and left several others injured in separate attacks at Harsil, Bagori, Dharali and Mukhba villages. "I myself was attacked by a pack of 15-16 dogs at my apple orchard on Thursday. I had to climb a tree and scare away the animals by throwing stones. They were very aggressive," Pratham Singh, who owns a hotel at Dharali, 3km away from Harsil, told TOI over the phone.

Singh said one of the dead cows belonged to a medicine shop owner in Harsil named Nagendra. Local media reports said another Harsil resident, Indra Singh Rawat, had also lost a cow.

The DM said the area had a large number of feral dogs. "Army units at the Harsil base feed and rear these dogs. But once a particular unit is transferred out, the dogs are on their own," Pandey said.

According to S Sathyakumar, an expert on Himalayan fauna at the Wildlife Institute of India, hunger may be driving the dogs to attack cattle. "These dogs may normally have fed on food waste produced by dhabas, pilgrims and villagers. But with no traffic on the Gangotri route since the mid-June tragedy and food shortages in the villages, the dogs would have no food," he conjectured.

Sathyakumar said Army units in the hills often left behind feral dogs that are known to have turned to cattle and even wild animals for food. "This is well-documented. What seems to have precipitated the situation in Harsil is the shortage of food. Immediately after the flash floods, there would have been dead cattle and wild animals for these dogs to feed. There was also airdropped food. The crisis would have set in after a couple of weeks or so," he said.

The expert said the dogs needed to be monitored. "Locals should be asked to take precautions and if need be, these dogs should be trapped and taken to animal shelters," he added.

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 20, 2013.