Mounting garbage crisis has begun to bite back in God’s Own Country with a Supreme Court-appointed committee highlighting that waste is the main cause for a phenomenal rise in stray dog population and rabies in Kerala.
Bleak picture“Kerala is estimated to have a stray dog population of 2.5 lakh, which feed lavishly on the wastes and garbage dumps across cities and towns. Frequent stray dog attacks on children have created a dangerous situation. More than one lakh people in the State have been bitten by dogs in 2015-16 ... And rabies is invariably fatal,” the apex court’s committee painted a bleak picture of the state of public health and hygiene in one of the country’s most popular tourist havens.
The report by a committee comprising former Kerala High Court judge, Justice S. Siri Jagan, Kerala Government Law Secretary and the State’s Director of Health Services, said the total allocation for anti-rabies vaccine and serum is “significantly higher” than the budget kept aside for other essential drugs.
The Supreme Court had tasked the committee with entertaining complaints of dog bites in the State.
