Letter from Chikki's Rescuer

July 8, 2001

About the Chikki case, (that was the name of the 'street' dog as kept by the local washerman) the day after the FIR was lodged by Anjali Raman, the police recorded our individual statements and also informed us that we would be required to appear in the court to repeat the same, soon.

As evident in the nature of the section under which they were booked (section 428-429 IPC), the security guard Saroj was arrested the same day and kept in lock-up for a fortnight.  Colonel Sitaram, the involved security officer, was put in for a day, after which he got bail (which, incidentally, he paid out of the residents' association account).

The case ought to have gone to trial, we are awaiting the same.  During the period of the entire episode, Anjali and her mother were under pressure from other ex-armymen of  the colony to withdraw the case.  From what I could gather from her account of their phone calls and visits, it sounded more like harassment.

Chikki showed signs of recovery for a week.  He passed away about 2 weeks after the incident.  The reason that the vet shelter gave was that of severe infection in an already debilitated dog.

Chikki was a good natured puppy.  He was healthy and vaccinated and kept to himself.  I and my husband Sajal have been involved with dogs since school.  Our initial efforts were situational.  For the last six years, besides our SOS activities, we have followed the ABC programme in the areas that we were residing in.  This was, and is, on individual basis.

ABC stands , as you undoubtedly know, for Animal Birth Control.  We identify all target dogs in an area and get the females sterilised, we vaccinate all dogs for Rabies, and we deworm all of them.  As far as is possible we spread the word around.  We have completed this exercise recently in Sec-30 of NOIDA where we stay now.

With the recommendation of Mrs. Maneka Gandhi, we and the other animal workers were able to stop the practice of dog picking and elimination carried on by the local NOIDA municipality.  But the basis of any future work for stray dogs in NOIDA has to be ABC. (There is also no knowing, when under so called
'public pressure' about the 'troublesome' dogs all
over the place, the authorities resume their dog
clearing activities.)

Sajal and I have prepared a proposal for the implementation of ABC in NOIDA.  We have made a timetable following which, we plan to be able to cover all dogs in the area under ABCDI (which means ABC + Deworming + Immunisation) in 2 yrs.  All requisites, personnel appointment, equipment,  have been taken care of and budgeted for.  We have a trustworthy team to man the programme. We are also assured of the reliable contribution of at least 10 other voluntary workers in NOIDA.  In short, we are all set to get started from day 1.

The Dist. Magistrate (head of local administration) is encouraging and positive.  We have also spoken to some other officials in the land dept.  However, over 6 months of proposal
submitting and personal meetings have been fruitless.  There has been no response from the many International NGOs that we wrote to.

Govt. funding agencies will only support already running setups.  In this regard, your suggestion of any individual or org that you can recommend to us who might support this programme, will be
valuable.

It would be good if you could put this in Dogs in News. We would like to contribute to your site accounts of dogs whom we have known - real life stories waiting to be told about these dog-guys and associated people.  Do let us know if this will be possible.

Thanks a lot and regards,
Priya

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