by Naveed Wani

Srinagar

As one walks towards Kashmir University’s Rumi Gate, one of the two main gates, the first thing that catches your attention is a huge pile of garbage, and a pack of dogs trying to salvage whatever they could find.

The campus of the university, which is shielded on one side by Dal Lake, and other by a beautiful garden full of maple (chinar) trees, is now the new home to dogs, mostly from surrounding areas.

Bisma Khan, 24, a second-year student of Education Department in the university said, “They (dogs) not only chase students but even enter the premises of our department.”

She and her classmates have complained to the authorities on a number of occasions, but nothing has been done so far. “We are constantly at the risk of getting bitten by dogs even inside the campus.”

A student from English department, who wishes not to be named in the story, said she was actually chased by a pack of dogs. “I somehow managed to escape. But it was scary.”

Another student from the same department, Asma, said that “Dogs roam around all the time even when we are taking our lunch.”

Asma and her friends have now stopped taking lunch outside their department as it is not safe to sit in the park.

Dr Naseer Iqbal, Chief Proctor, said, “We are doing our best to clean the campus. But there is a big pit just outside the Rumi Gate where local municipality officials dump domestic waste collected from surrounded areas.”

Iqbal feels that this is what attracts dogs to the site. And the same dogs then enter the campus.

But unless university authorities come up with a plan to get rid of the dumping site, dogs are literally on the prowl inside the campus.