An elderly woman is suspected to have been killed by a pack of stray dogs in Bengaluru’s Dwarka Nagar, said the police on Saturday. The RR Nagar Police said that the woman, who could not be identified, was attacked on the night of May 14. The body was discovered by residents in the area who informed the police. During the investigation, police found that the woman was homeless and lived on the streets.
According to a report in The Hindu, the residents said they had noticed the dogs hounding the woman on the evening of May 14 and onlookers had chased the dogs away. A few hours after this her body was discovered mauled and bitten at. It is suspected that the same pack attacked her around midnight, according to the police.
Another report in The New Indian Express said that the residents had suspected homicide when they initially discovered the body and notified the police. Police had also found CCTV footage of stray dogs chasing another person in the area that same night. According to the report in TNIE, a case has been registered against the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for not looking after the stray dogs' population.
The 2012 census of livestock states that there are 1.83 lakh strays in Bengaluru. The BBMP has an Animal Birth Control Programme to sterilise stray dogs and release them back in the same place that they were taken from. But this programme has not been implemented properly in many places. Added to this, during the lockdown many stray dogs have not had access to food as restaurants and market places have closed. Moreover, citizens are unable to move around and feed these dogs leading to starvation. Speaking to IANS an official of the Animal Husbandry Department alleged a number of dogs are abandoned by pet owners, and that leads to an increase in the number of dogs on the streets as well.