COIMBATORE: In response to the recent Supreme Court guidelines, the Higher Education Department has directed all higher educational institutions in Tamil Nadu to compulsorily form stray dog prevention committees to ensure students’ safety in campus.
The committee’s aim is to ensure that there are no stray dogs on the campuses of higher educational institutions. To monitor this, the respective college principals have been appointed as nodal officers.
The committee, headed by the nodal officer, is to be formed with a senior teaching staff member, a student representative, a member from an NGO, and an official from the Animal Husbandry Department or a veterinarian.
Following the direction of the Higher Education Department, college managements have begun forming committees in their respective institutions and conducting awareness campaigns for students on protection from stray dogs, rabies, and related issues.
Apart from this, a board titled Management of Stray Dogs in Educational Institutions has been displayed on the college campus for students’ reference.
A board installed at the Government Arts and Science College, Thondamuthur in Coimbatore, displays details such as the category of the institution, jurisdiction, name of the panchayat, name of the nodal officer, name of the veterinary doctor, contact number, and other relevant information.
A senior official from the Higher Education Department told TNIE, “As part of this, institutions have been asked to ensure preventive measures such as adequate fencing, boundary walls, and gates, as well as other structural or administrative steps to prevent the entry of stray dogs. Besides, awareness programmes are being held for students, teaching, and non-teaching staff on preventive behaviour around animals, first aid for bites, and immediate reporting protocols.”
Importantly, students have been instructed not to feed stray dogs if they are found on campus and to report such instances to the nodal officer, who will coordinate with the local body to catch and relocate the animals, he added.
