Infant mauled by dog in Noida society dies, locals protest

Noida: A seven-month-old child died after he was mauled by a stray dog inside a posh group housing complex here, a society representative said on Tuesday.

Anguished over the incident, several locals held a protest outside the society in the morning over the death of the child whose parents are daily-wage earners.

The dog attacked the child inside the premises of Lotus Boulevard society in Sector 100 around 4.30 pm on Monday, Dharam Vir Yadav, a representative of the society’s residents group said.

”The child was admitted to a private hospital where doctors operated on him. Unfortunately, we lost him late last night,” Yadav told PTI.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (Noida 1) Rajneesh Verma, the child’s parents are construction workers and they were engaged in work at the time of the incident. ”They had kept the boy near them. But a stray dog entered the society and bit him, leaving him severely injured,” Verma had told PTI on Monday.

On Tuesday, the police lodged a general diary case in the matter, officials said. The child died around 11 pm on Monday and the police case was lodged around 3 am on Tuesday, they added.

According to the officials, the infant was the fourth and youngest child of the couple.

The episode prompted a brief protest outside the society by locals, who raised slogans against the Noida Authority. Among the protestors was a group of women who occupied a road stretch, seeking accountability of officials over the stray dog menace in the area.

Noida Authority’s officer on special duty Indu Prakash Singh said they were coordinating with residential societies and dog shelters to check the menace of dog bites.

In the wake of the protest, the authority also caught over a dozen stray dogs from the area. ”Noida Authority is working on setting up four shelter homes for dogs. These shelter homes will come up within a month and help check the stray dog menace in Noida,” he said.

On average, Noida Authority gets 8-10 calls daily related to stray dog menace, including biting incidents, and for demands on increasing sterilisation of such canines, he added.