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Overflowing trash trolleys feed stray dogs, wild boars in Islamabad

By APP
October 15, 2019

Islamabad:The overflowing trash trolleys, installed across the capital, are source of abundant feast for wild boars and stray dogs as the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) could not come up with a single innovative plan of proper garbage disposal.

The citizens on Monday expressing concern over the ever increasing population of stray dogs and wild boars complained that untimely cleansing of stuffed dumpsters was a major source for the wild animals, posing serious threats to the residents'' lives and properties.

“The wild boars are a constant threat for motorists as they move to night and a number of accidents in recent past have been reported on Islamabad Expressway and Sectors E and F, linking Margalla Road,” Nasir Ali, a resident of Sector E-11 said.

The packs of pigs and dogs could be seen roaming in the city’s streets and MCI sanitary staff was not ensuring the cleaning of dumpsters on regular basis, Sohaib Ahmed, a resident of G-7 complained.

“I am miffed as nobody bothers to take care about the movement of wild boars and dogs who usually come over roads in search of food,” he regretted. Sohaib said Islamabad, being the federal capital, was still relying on archaic methods of waste collection when the world had embraced digital technologies for the solid waste management.

Another resident of F-6, Bangesh Khan urged the authorities concerned to rectify the situation by covering those open waste bins. He also demanded at least two small trolleys in each street to avoid heaps of garbage gathered along the stuffed bins.

He said the dog bite cases had also increased in the city due to slackness of sanitation department.

“I had escaped an accident yesterday at Muree Road, near Bhara Kahu where a drove of wild boars came right in front of my car while crossing the road and I could not see them due to dysfunctional lights,” a commuter Shehzad Satti said.

An official from Islamabad Wildlife Management Board Sikhawat said the wild boars usually set up their colonies along the nullahs and remained there in day light. "The male wild boars protect their territory and female with their piglets throng the urban areas to search for food and odour of wasted food attracts them. The dogs and wild boars sense of smelling works from miles," he remarked.

Sikhawat said the only solution to stop the wild boars'' movement to urban areas was to cut the supply of food. He also urged citizens not to dump waste outside the allocated waste bins.

According to the Wildlife Ordinance 1979, he said, the killing of wild boars was banned within the territory of National Margalla Hills Park. According to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), around 50 cases of the dog bites were being reported in the hospital daily.

The PIMS was providing only first dose of rabies vaccine to the patients due to its shortage across the country. An official source from MCI Sanitation Directorate told APP that the teams were taking action against stray dogs and killing 10-15 dogs daily on public complaints.

About overflowing dumpsters, he said the corporation was facing shortage of funds and even could not set up a permanent landfill site in the last five decades. According to Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit (PMDU), out of 486 some 410 complaints of the federal capital’s residents regarding stray dogs and pigs had been resolved.