KOLKATA: Heavy rain on Friday night flooded the Dhapa dog pound, putting around 140 stray dogs at risk. It had been alleged that no senior KMC official came to the rescue of the dogs, who were struggling to survive. While majority of these dogs were picked up from streets across 144 KMC wards and shifted to the pound for sterilisation, others were brought there for treatment after being rescued.Several dog attendants, security guards, and pump operators spent a sleepless night as the storm water flooded the entire premises and had also entered the kennels, leaving the animals frightened. The situation was worse till Saturday afternoon as the adjacent neighbourhood had a poor drainage network, and hence the storm water took time to recede. However, an attendant of the dog pound expressed surprise over the absence of any senior officials from the KMC headquarters. According to a KMC health department source, a veterinary officer who was supposed to look after the dog pound was absent on Saturday. “We were really helpless in battling the issue with no clear instruction from the senior officials. A veterinary doctor needs to examine the health of the stray dogs before we can sterilise them and release them from the spot from where they were picked up,” said an attendant.
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As Dhapa dog pound is situated in a low-lying area, the storm waters from adjoining neighbourhoods flow down to this place (Dhapa), and the pound gets flooded every monsoon. “Sensing an impending danger, the stray animals started barking aloud. At this point, we called a couple of pump operators and asked them to flush out the accumulated water from the dog pound complex as fast as they could. Two heavy-duty pumps were pressed into service, and that helped storm water from our complex to recede for the time being,” said a civic employee posted at the dog pound.“We need to upgrade the drainage infrastructure of Dhapa dog pound immediately,” the civic official said.
