Kashmir has the tradition of ‘Kashmiriyat’. An etiquette and manner and tolerance uniquely Kashmiri. But Kashmir also has the ‘tradition’ of killing dogs by poisoning them every summer. Much the same way they are in Kerala. To keep the streets relatively free for the ‘tourist’. Issues related to stray dogs in Kashmir, and related to stray dogs in Kerala have been reflected on these pages many a time.
The reports that come from Kashmir will make you believe that Srinagar, and the rest of Kashmir is overrun by large dog moving around in packs that attack humans on sight. Dogs so aggressive and ferocious humans cringe away and walk in fear – always giving them a wide berth.
This, coupled with the fact that there are hardly any accounts available on the dogs themselves in the valley. All that you see is either carefully controlled anti-dog propaganda or the limited & controlled photo’s of the initial phases of the ABC program in Kashmir. This summer, Sehej Rashpal Gulati went to Kashmir and brought with her a set from the lives of Kashmir’s dogs.
Here is one of the 1st such captured ‘attack’ in a multi-exposure sequence. It clearly bunks the myth of people treading in fear or dogs being aggressive. There are any number of women, children and men who walk past this pack on the shores of the Dal Lake, with scarcely an acknowledgement from either side! Nothing dissimilar to what happens with any other set of dogs in any other city.
A series of such photographs on Indian Dogs in Kashmir are being released here. As you will see Kashmiri dogs, as with Kashmir people, are the same as elsewhere in India.
