Dogs have their day at Nehru Stadium

More than 30 dogs and puppies have made the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here their home, causing a huge problem and embarrassment to the officials in charge of stadium facilities and venue operations for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

The authorities woke up to the dog menace when a foreign woman athlete came out screaming from a toilet during the Asian All-Star Athletics Meet at the stadium last month-end.

She was terrified when confronted by a dog. The dogs have resisted all attempts to evict them since then.

“They defecate on the track, in the corridors, on the indoor track and in the basement. We keep cleaning up and they come back and dirty the same spots all over again,” said an exasperated athletics official engaged in tying up the loose ends at the venue.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi had rounded up thousands of cattle and dogs in a special drive recently aimed at clearing the Games venues and surrounding areas of stray domestic animals. There were objections from NGOs to this drive because of the cruel manner in which the task was being handled.

Obviously the municipal squads have not reached the Nehru Stadium, where over 1,000 workers are still engaged in various activities connected with clearing and sprucing up of the venue apart from other work related to cables, drainage, construction of roads, boundary walls, etc. “The labourers provide food to the dogs and that's how they have continued to stay at the stadium,” said one official. “The dogs have had fresh litters too,” he added.

“The wall around the stadium is broken at several places now and a new wall is being erected. Obviously the dogs have easy access to the stadium,” said one Sports Authority of India official.