Leading industrialist Kochouseph Chittilappilly, founder of V-Guard Industries, has decided to go on a day’s fast to press the authorities to create a stray-dog-free Kerala.

Chittilappilly, 65, who heads the Stray-Dog-Free Movement, will go on fast for 24 hours from Sunday morning at Marine Drive here.

He was recently booked under Section 428 of IPC (cruelty to animals) by the city police for marching to a police station with four stray dogs in tow.

“I will be happy if I am arrested and put in jail for my campaign against stray dogs,” Chittilappilly told Business Line . “In a country where thousands of people die of rabies each year, the authorities care more for stray dogs than human life.”

Vaccine market He said that India was the largest market for anti-rabies vaccine in the world and that vaccine valued at thousands of crores of rupees was sold in the country every year. Death by rabies is one of the most painful and tragic deaths, he noted.

Chittilappilly pointed out that there were half a million stray dogs in densely-populated Kerala. “Until a decade ago, the gram panchayats and municipalities used to cull stray dogs,” he recalled.

“After Maneka Gandhi brought in the ill-conceived law against culling dogs, the stray dog population has multiplied at geometrical proportions,” he said.

Visually-challenged and other physically disabled people, young children and women are the main victims of stray dogs.

Kids’plea In a separate campaign, a million schoolchildren in Kerala will soon be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pleading him to save them from the stray dogs.

Quoting news reports of rabies deaths, children mauled by street dogs and domestic animals killed by packs of stray dogs, Chittilappilly said the authorities, who are scared of Maneka Gandhi’s law, were ignoring their responsibility to protect citizens’ lives. And, those raising their voices against this injustice are being booked for cruelty to animals.

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