Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

MCH mulls using volleyball net

By J.S. Ifthekhar

Misses such as this are a common feature.

HYDERABAD July 18. Lathis, long ropes and armed police. Tension mounts a notch as everyone takes the position. The moment it is spotted, the men spread out all alert. No, it is not big game they are after. The hunt is on for pigs.

Set a thief to catch a thief. That may be a sound advice. But MCH believes in using its dog catching squad to trap the swine. The result is obvious -- huffing, puffing and ensnaring them with great difficulty, only to see them give the slip.

With the scare of mystery fever haunting the city, the civic body has stepped up the pig catching operation. But, in the absence of trained hands, trapping the pigs has become a difficult task. For the time being, the MCH has pressed into service four teams of the dog catching squad. But they are proving unequal to the task. With some of the squad members being old, the job has become all the more tough. Even if they manage to trap a pig, the squad members are not strong enough to withstand its force. "The animals easily give the slip,'' say officials.

In a change of tack, the sanitation wing has proposed to use the volleyball net to catch the pigs. The net will cover the entire road and it will be impossible for the animal to escape, says G. Malsur, Additional Commissioner, Health and Sanitation.

Though pig rearing is banned as per the HMC Act, yet a large number of them are present in Sultan Shahi, Gowliguda, Shamlal Building area and behind Vice Roy hotel. In the last few days, the MCH has caught more than 400 pigs and put them to sleep through euthanasia.

On Friday, three teams were deployed in Secunderabad and Langar Houz areas and nearly 80 pigs were caught. As a precaution, police escort is being provided to the squad. But in many areas, people themselves are coming forward to point out the hideouts and houses where the pigs are being reared.

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