May Dog Days at Kukkarahalli Lake be over!

Among a dozen water bodies those that have survived the human greed, vandalism and neglect in the Royal City of Wadiyar Dynasty are the famous Kukkarahalli Lake under the care of the University of Mysore and the Karanji Lake under the care of Mysuru Zoo.

While the latter is well-protected and developed, the former has been under utter neglect and wide open, like a no-man’s land, to humans and animals alike. Yet it is a preferred destination for morning walkers for decades.

Then one day the morning walkers, mostly senior citizens (youngsters apparently prefer gym), were faced with a problem of dodging the stray dogs occupying their walking space.

The walkers went to the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Mysore University and complained. They told the VC the cause for the presence of so many stray dogs was the feeding of these dogs by some good Samaritans, the animal-lovers, with a misplaced sense of being kind to animals. They did not mind being unkind to humans.

The VC got into action and banned the feeding of dogs, animals and birds in the Kukkarahalli Lake area. To make his decision communicated to the ‘animal-lovers,’ the VC got signboards with his order put up in the Lake premises. And lo and behold! The hades broke loose. Complaint went to the Guardian Angel of the animals in Delhi and an oral order dropped on VC’s table asking him to revoke his ‘inhuman’ order against the innocent dogs of the Lake. And an obedient VC revoked his order and removed the signboards proclaiming prohibition of feeding animals.

From here on, the drama of dog-man conflict began to unfold. Battlelines were clearly drawn. It has now become a war of attrition between those who aligned with the dogs and those who got ready for the battle on the side of the old and tired humans. This is when I recalled an old english film ‘Planet of the Apes.’

‘Planet of the Apes’ was a film where the theme was about complex relations between man and apes — monkeys. It was a science fiction classic about three astronauts marooned on a futuristic planet where apes rule and humans are slaves. The stunned trio discover that these highly intellectual simians can both walk upright and talk!

Unfortunately here at the Kukkarahalli Lake, dogs rule and humans are victims. Here the stunned morning walkers have discovered that these packs of dogs can bark, obstruct their passage and even bite. Some walkers who were bitten had to take anti-rabies injections as a result.

I remembered the film ‘Planet of the Apes,’ for its symbolic moral for the mankind. There was also a follow up on the original film titled ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ where the theme was about defining a future for apes and humans alike. Wonder if the time has come for Mysureans  to define their future as well as that of the stray dogs in this city, specially in and around the iconic     Kukkarahalli Lake.

I also remembered Jesus: “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Here at the Kukkarahalli Lake, stray dogs have place to roam around, food to eat, but the old ‘Son of Man’ has no place to walk at the Kukkarahalli Lake. He also said: “If God feeds the birds, He will also feed those who are of greater worth than birds.” Now God alone must come to the rescue of the morning walkers for they are of greater worth than the stray dogs!

I believe that in a natural surrounding, animals and birds will find their own way to feed themselves and survive. Are there not many more stray dogs and birds (pigeons) feeding themselves without the “kindness and generosity” of these animals-lovers? Worse for the walkers, the risk of stamping   on the dog poop!

Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy of the  Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP), the city NGO, says allowing stray dogs into the Kukkarahalli Lake premises is like allowing a mongoose into a snake park. Indeed, Guardian Angels of these stray dogs should also be Guardian Angels of old humans.

The stray dog menace in our city is real and frightening. Many have been attacked by stray dogs, specially old people and children. I am a living example of dog attack, not once but thrice, during my morning walk driving me to K.R. Hospital to suffer those injections to my abdomen and to Dr. C.B. Murthy of B.M. Hospital to take anti-rabies injection of a less painful kind in later years.

Like our fatigued Opposition political parties flaunting the Constitution, these dog-lovers are flaunting various laws like Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, etc., without understanding its spirit. In their professed love for the ‘poor’ stray dogs, they should not cause pain to the humans who strive hard to keep away from the stray dogs.

And finally, I want to ask our former Krishnaraja Constituency MLA for four terms from BJP, S.A. Ramdas: Whatever happened to the Rayanakere Stray Dog Rehab Centre, he had initiated on a 5-acre land at a cost of  Rs. 2.60 crore? It was to be inaugurated on March 28, 2023.

In the past, I have seen Municipality and Corporation men capturing the stray dogs, take them away in the vans and, was told, were either killed by poisoning or otherwise. Then there is a programme known as Animal Birth Control (ABC) where the men of the Municipality or the  Corporation catch the stray dogs and castrate them. Whatever happened to this programme?

In the past, there used to be Animal Pound, an animal shelter, where stray, lost, abandoned animals like dogs, cats, cattle, horses were housed and managed by the Municipality or the City Corporation. Wonder what happened to them. The stray dogs of Kukkarahalli Lake could have been put in these Pounds and the morning / evening walkers could have been liberated from their tormentors.

e-mail: voice@starofmysore.com