Monday, August 16, 2010

The Highly Anticipated Indian Street Dog Exposé


Street Dogs are a well-known problem within India. As an outsider, I had no idea they existed and certainly didn't expect so many. The stray dog population is terrifying, saddening, and far too prevalent.


A few days ago, we found ourselves in a park for the previously mentioned TWU Amazing Race games. A street dog was present for those as well. It's odd how quickly the below goes from absolutely shocking to expected.
streets_4


On my first day here, I went out with a few people to explore the surroundings. We headed to 100 ft road and started to explore the shops. This, like I imagine much of the country, is a fairly dense area.

View Larger Map


Perhaps a bit off topic, but important nonetheless -- there aren't very many crosswalks here. I haven't seen any lights on the few crosswalks that do exist. This certainly is a giant difference from being in the West. The receipe for a successful journey to the other side of the street essentially boils down to this scientific process:

  1. Wait for a break
  2. Run like your life depends on it...because it does

Crossing Street

After we miraculously crossed the street, we met an unbelievably scary pack of street dogs. Thank goodness they stayed away from us all. Another dog was not so lucky, as they chased him into traffic. Yikes.
Street Dog Pack

Most of the time they do seem fairly harmless. The common saying is present here as well: "they're more scared of you than you are of them." I did see one dog jump on a guy during our 100 ft road outing, however. I snapped this rather dark and terrible picture as the dog was running away. It took two people to kick the dog off the person.
Street Dog Running Away

Again, yikes.

4 comments:

  1. I would pass out if I saw that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. On second thought, I would ninja-roll over an auto-rickshaw to quickly make my way to the other side of the street.

    See, this is even scarier than I was picturing because I thought they were all random dogs on their own. But no, they come in gangs, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8DZ8c3aY_8&feature=related

    Just dropping this here.

    ReplyDelete