Indian villagers take revenge; 3 kids killed by dogs

GUJARAT: Dogs growl at each other as they fight over the remains of a dead calf on the outskirts of Wadhvan, some 140km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat state. Angry Indian villagers have killed a dozen dogs, some of them by gunfire, in revenge attacks for the mauling to death of three children by stray canines in northern India, officials said said. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Angry Indian villagers killed 13 stray dogs after three children were mauled to death by the animals on the same day, officials said yesterday. Villagers in Khairabad in Uttar Pradesh state took the law into their own hands after being gripped by panic over daily attacks that according to media reports have now left 14 children dead since January. The three children, all aged under 12, were killed by packs of dogs in separate incidents on Tuesday as they collected mangoes in fields outside the village.

A 2001 animal welfare law outlawed the killing of stray dogs. But the Khairabad villagers shot dead three and beat to death at least 10 others. “Our investigations revealed the children were alone at the time of attacks,” district police chief Sureshrao A Kulkarni told AFP, confirming the three latest deaths. He said there had been several previous deaths since January but did not give a figure. The officer said a team of vets and forest officials had been set up to control the rampaging canines.

Authorities linked the surge in attacks to the closure of a slaughterhouse in the area in November, where most of the dogs previously fed on animal carcasses. India has an estimated 30 million stray dogs, with roughly 17 million dog bites reported each year. Nearly 20,000 people die of rabies in the country each year, according to World Health Organization figures from 2014. Incidents of angry residents attacking strays are growing across India. Last month two men were arrested in New Delhi after they beat a stray to death because they were annoyed by its barking. A video of the incident was widely shared on social media.

Indian cities’ dirtiest

In another development, the World Health Organization said yesterday that India should follow China’s example and clean up the air in its cities, which are among the world’s worst for outdoor pollution. The WHO’s database of more than 4,300 cities showed Indian cities such as New Delhi, Varanasi and Patna were among the most polluted, based on the amount of particulate matter under 2.5 micrograms found in every cubic meter of air.

Chinese cities such as Xingtai and Shijiazhuang and the Saudi refining hub at Jubail were also highly polluted, but the data for those places was 4-5 years old, and Maria Neira, WHO’s head of public health, said China had made big improvements that India should follow. “There is a big step at the government level (in China) declaring war on air pollution,” Neira said. “One of the reasons for that is that the health argument was very strongly presented, and the fact that the citizens were really breathing air that was totally unacceptable.”

“We would be very happy if we would see a similar movement now in India which is one of the countries for which we are particularly concerned, although there are good initiatives which can be put in place quickly, still the levels are very high and we would like to see a similar decision and leadership.” The WHO says nine out of 10 people on the planet breathe polluted air, and it kills 7 million people each year, almost all of them in poor countries in Asia and Africa. About a quarter of deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer can be attributed to air pollution, the WHO says.

Globally, outdoor air pollution has remained high and largely unchanged in the past six years, while household air pollution has got worse in many poorer countries, as people continue to cook with solid fuel or kerosene, instead of cleaner fuels such as gas and electricity. “The transition to clean fuels and technology in the home, clean household energy, is too slow. It’s been three decades and we still have three billion people primarily relying on (polluting) fuels and technologies, and that’s for cooking alone,” said WHO technical officer Heather Adair-Rohani.

WHO’s global assessment is based on satellite data and modeling overlaid on the database of cities, which is self-selecting because it is based on voluntary reporting, with numbers that have been hugely revised since the previous report. The most polluted city in 2016’s report, Zabol in Iran, has had its pollution level cut fourfold in the latest version of the database, and now appears to be cleaner than Australia’s capital Canberra. “The data we are presenting today is I think the most accurate you can expect at the moment,” Neira said. - Agencies