NfN NETWORK
Phulia, July 12: In an unusual incident, a stray horse went amok, biting at least 20 helpless persons including 8 students of a local high school in Nadia’s Phulia during past few days putting the district administration in an embarrassing situation as two of its departments have shrugged off responsibility to nab the animal and preferred to remain idle as they found it neither belong to “Domestic” category nor to “Wild” with which they only deal with respectively.
The horse grazing in a field adjacent to school in Phulia colony
While forest department claimed the horse does not fall under “wild” category with which they only deal with, the animal resources development (ARD) officials claimed that they only deal with “Domestic” animal under which the horse does not fall.
Divisional forest officer (Nadia-Murshidabad) Rana Dutta: “We handle the wild animal only, but a horse does not belong to this category. So we advised to contact the ARD department who can nab such stray animal and put it into their pinjrapole (covered enclave)”
But deputy director of ARD Mrinal Kanti Samaddar said: “We deal only with domestic animals, but the Horse is not one of them. However, I have told my officials to look into the matter”.
But, none of them could confirm a Horse belong to which category.
While the horse even today chased an elderly man and left him bleeding biting his wrist, the officials of – ARD and forest department preferred to dodge the responsibility from one to other’s court.
District magistrate Nadia Sumit Gupta said: “I have heard about the incident and making necessary inquiry into it”.
Local sources in Phulia colony said that the horse, engaged to pull a cart in brick klin was recently abandoned by its owner after it started behaving unusually. Sources said the horse developed a sort of madness after it was bitten by a dog.
“The horse has so far bitten seven of our students and a teacher. I personally took some of them to Phulia block primary health centre where the doctor administered anti rabies vaccine to them. The horse has been roaming in the adjacent ground for the last few days, the locals are panicked. We approached the BDO but so far no initiative taken to nab the animal. The presence of the Horse on the way to school has forced the students to abstain classes” – Tanmay Sanyal, Teacher, Phulia Sikshaniketan
Local residents, nevertheless, did find nothing unusual when around ten days ago saw a horse grazing in a field adjacent to a ground of Phulia Sikshaniketan School. But, it changed its color later when students started gathering in the ground. The horse went amok as it chased the students, dashed them, kicked the passers-by and even started biting them unleashing panic among the local residents. The animal also terrorized a few others and caused them mild injuries.
Tanmay Sanyal, a biology teacher of the school said: “The Horse has so far bitten seven of our students and a teacher. I personally took some of them to Phulia block primary health centre where the doctor administered anti rabies vaccine to them. The horse has been roaming in the adjacent ground for the last few days, the locals are panicked. We approached the BDO but so far no initiative taken to nab the animal. The presence of the Horse on the way to school has forced the students to abstain classes”.
Block medical officer of health Amiya Das said: “So far 12 patients came to us for treatment being bitten by a horse. Generally the horse bit has no history of rabies. But, villagers told me that it was bitten by mad dog, which died. So considering the Horse carrying suspected rabies germ I started anti rabies vaccine for the victims”.
A mark of horse bit on the arm of a student in Phulia. NfN Picture
Local sources said that some people taking much risk nabbed the Horse in night and handed it over to local block livestock development officials, where it was kept tied with a rope. But, the officials did not take much care of it as it managed escape.
District veterinary officer Joydeep Chatterjee confirmed that the horse was under their custody and examined by the veterinary doctors, but had no idea how it escaped.
He, however, refused to divulge the findings of the medical examination, nor confirmed if the horse has diagnosed “madness”.
When asked about nabbing the Horse, Chatterjee said: “It is not our duty, firstly we only deal with domestic animal, but horse doesn’t belong to this category. Moreover, we have no such infrastructure. If the horse has at all gone amok, concerned person should lodge complaint with police and we will act on police report”