Now people need to extend co-operation : Chain pet dogs call
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 05 2018 -
Chain pet dogs. This is the latest advisory from the Forest Department to the people, in the face of the unknown predator/s stalking livestocks and leaving a trail of mystery.
Thanks to social media, news of the mysterious stalker/s travel faster than light and even students studying outside the State in some other cities receive the news faster than even some of those in the profession of disseminating news and information to the public.
Not that all the news are genuine, and this is one sure way of triggering false alarm and this was what happened at Manipur some days back.
Not that the fear and apprehension of the people have been addressed to, but the latest report from the Forest Department that distress calls have come down appreciably is welcome.
A look at the statistics should tell its own story.
As reported, a source from the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Control rooms set up across the districts received 32 distress calls on December 1.
On December 2, the number of distress calls shot up to 62 and on December 3 till 8.15 pm, the number of distress calls received at the Control rooms was only 8.
This may be seen as an improvement and now comes the advisory from the Forest Department to keep all pet dogs chained.
Manipur does not have stray dogs as such, and the advisory from the Forest Department should serve as an eye opener to the fact that many pet dogs are let free to roam the roads and streets of every leikais and leiraks.
The number of such dogs taking a stroll on the roads usually increase after dark and this is where the advisory from the Forest Department should be noted.
In a period of uncertainty, when nothing is established on what is stalking the livestocks, it would be best to keep all domestic canines under check.
This call should also stand for all time to come, for all must have experienced how irritating it can get when pet dogs move around together and start barking in the middle of the night.
Not only does it disturb the neighbourhood but it can also send false alarms.
On the other hand, the call of the Forest Department should also be understood in the context of what it is trying to do at the moment.
Keeping all pet dogs under chain should not be such a hard thing to do and this is the least the people can do to help the teams from the Wildlife Institute of India and Forest Department personnel to study the case minutely without any disturbance and zero in on the identity of the predator/s.
And keeping pet dogs chained is surely a co-operation that can and should be extended.
It would also do good for all not to overhype the situation via the social media such as Whatsapp as this can trigger a fear psychosis and as everyone knows, no constructive steps can be taken up in an environment of fear and apprehension.
It is also a welcome development to learn that the cause of death of a cow at Kangpokpi has been established with the post mortem report pointing to snake bite and not any attack from predator/s.
This is where the earlier call of The Sangai Express to set up state of the art forensic laboratory gains credence.
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