Third fatality in two months in the Patiala district due to man being attacked by stray dogs

The threat posed by stray dogs in the Patiala area doesn’t seem to be abating. In a another occurrence, a field laborer was killed by a pack of stray dogs in a hamlet near the town of Nabha. The victim, a 40-year-old Uttar Pradeshi man who was employed as a combine harvester foreman, has been identified.

He was in the fields yesterday when the event occurred, prior to using the equipment. A gang of dogs suddenly attacked him. The locals claim that the dogs mauled Gurvinder’s head and other body parts, killing him in the assault.

He is the family’s only provider and has left behind a wife and three little children. It was to harvest the wheat crop that he had come to the hamlet a few days earlier.

The locals claim that in the last two months, there have been three dog bite fatalities in the region, but the authorities have done nothing. Dogs had already murdered an 11-year-old youngster and an 80-year-old man.

In the run-up to the elections, the issue became a political controversy when Preneet Kaur, a Patiala-based BJP candidate and sitting member of parliament, said that the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was neglecting the problem of the increasing number of stray dogs. She said that no compensation is given to the relatives of those murdered by the dogs either.

The MP said that in February, when Karanpreet Singh, then 11 years old, was playing with his siblings in Barsat, he was attacked by dogs. Sandeep Singh, the victim’s father, requested victim compensation, but nothing was provided.

Anil Kumar, a former sarpanch of Barsat village, said that many government representatives had visited the hamlet at the time of the tragedy and had promised to begin a sterilization scheme to manage the dog population. However, a few days after the occurrence, all had been forgotten.

Likewise, in February, dogs fatally attacked Jeet Singh (80), a resident of Sauja hamlet close to Nabha.

Sukhvir Singh, his son, said that he was also awaiting victim compensation. Sadly, the threat posed by stray dogs is not being addressed by the authorities. “The mere thought of my father being brutally killed by a dog keeps me up at night,” Sukhvir said.

When questioned, Patiala Deputy Commissioner Showkat Ahmad Parray said that a group overseen by SDM has been given the go-ahead to begin a dog sterilization initiative in the community. In addition, a committee oversees the victim compensation plan for fatal dog bite cases, and funds are disbursed promptly.