Picture used for representational purpose only

MEERUT: Stray dogs picked up another child, this time 28-days-old, and mauled it to death in a field on the outskirts of a Saharanpur's Dayalpur village on early Friday morning, a day after a 3-month-old child died in the same manner in the same district.

Ram Karan, the father of the child, said, "The dogs took him (the child) away sometime in the early hours of Friday. Soon after knowing about his absence, we started searching for him. We found his mutilated body in a field in on the village outskirts." On Wednesday, a 3-month-old child was mauled to death by a pack of dogs in nearby Dayalpur village. The child was sleeping close to mother in the courtyard when it was picked up by the dogs in Behat area of Saharanpur.

According to Rajneesh Kumar, father of the child, "My wife was sleeping along with our son Abhimanyu in the open courtyard. Around 4 in the morning, a few stray dogs entered the premises, took hold of my son and dragged him away. Almost immediately, my wife, Phoolwati, woke up and started shouting that the baby was missing." Soon enough, family members ran helter-skelter but could not find the baby or trace the dogs. It was only in the morning that the villagers found the body of the child in a nearby field.

Vijay Pal, circle officer of Behat in Saharanpur told TOI, "After the Wednesday incident in Dayalpur village, we were on alert and a police team was also there along with forest department team. But, unfortunately another incident occurred in the early hours of Friday. Forest department has confirmed after studying the paws of the animals that the dogs are responsible for the second incident also. Now, we will deploy PAC contingent to keep an eye. Besides, villagers have also been asked to stay on vigil."

The unfortunate incident comes just a day after stray dogs mauled to death a 24-year-old farmer while he was working on his field in Mukimpur Dharmsi village of neighbouring district Bijnor. Attacks by stray dogs are on the rise in several pockets of western UP. On June 6, a six-year-old girl was mauled by dogs when she ventured into the fields with her grandfather. Two days later, she succumbed to injuries. Similarly in May, a stray dog bit four persons at Chittora village of Muzaffarnagar after which irate villages beat the canine to death. Two days before that, a pack of dogs mauled to death an elderly woman in Bijnor.

According to sources at CMO Office of Saharanpur, close to 30 cases of dog bites are coming on a daily basis in the district. Bijnor and Meerut regions are also witnessing the same trend.

The attacks by pack of unruly dogs has jumped manifold in Meerut also. According to health authorities, on an average 500 people are being attacked by the stray dogs every week in the district. It all comes six months after the Allahabad high court had given two weeks to the municipal corporations of Varanasi and Meerut to clear the city streets of stray cattle and dogs.

The order had stated: "Launch a campaign for catching the stray cattle from January 20. Make the entire city stray cattle free by February 5. These abandoned animals should be transported and rehabilitated outside the city limits."

UP Municipal Corporation Act, 1959 also states that the corporation in each city is responsible for catching and destroying any animal or bird that becomes a nuisance to society. Animal experts have also suggested sterilization as a means to curb stray dog menace. The task lies with civic bodies, which apparently are unable to carry out sterilization.

From time to time, experts have also appealed to residents not to feed the strays and if they do so, not to stop suddenly. Loss of food often makes dogs aggressive. They also attribute burgeoning piles of garbage as another reason for growing population of strays.

