For many years now, the issue of pet dog poop has been rearing its head as dog owners and their hired walkers indiscriminately permit the poop of their pet dogs to lie on roads and parks in our colony, leading to inconvenience to regular walkers, park users and creating an unhygienic environment in general. Many of these dogs are walked by the staff or hired dog walkers but the problem of leaving dog poop on the walkway and in the main park is not restricted only to the hired staff.
Unfortunately, no solution has materialized because a systems-thinking end to end approach has not been applied to this problem. Such an approach includes not just education through posters and protests through WhatsApp messages (which has been amply resorted to) but providing a poop disposal policy and methodology relevant to us, making a database of dogs that are walked and speaking to the owners, publicly appreciating those who are conforming and privately taking up the matter with those who are not, rather than use penal approaches like naming and shaming.
A small but significant step has been taken as a pilot in the park opposite N 101 by few dog owners, along with support from RWA (N). If this is successful, others can also follow it.
On 23rd August, a WhatsApp group was created of owners who send their pet dogs to the park opposite N-101, a popular spot for many dog owners and their walkers, especially in the evening. So far, eight of them have joined the group. Mr. Uppi Marwah, President of the RWA (N) and Ms. Asha Chopra of N 40 prompted this initiative, and her daughter Radha enthusiastically joined in, to make this a reality.
The RWA made a list of the house numbers of all pet dog walkers to N-101 on a particular day and reported a total of fourteen (actual may be higher) house numbers from where they came.
Owners/walkers have been told to dispose of the poop beyond the side shrubs where no one walks or sits down.
We have received feedback from Mr. Raj Kumar Chauhan, the RWA Manager, that, just with these two actions of enrolling owners, having a conversation, and clarifying where poop can be disposed, there is already a 70% improvement in the incidence. The problem is currently more with the early morning walkers which needs addressing.
Efforts will continue to enroll more pet dog owners who bring/send their dogs to this park and a continuing dialogue undertaken with them to attempt the shift.
We hope that the dog owners who read this will make a little extra attempt to dispose the poop of their pets and carry themselves/make poop pickers available to their support staff, instructing them to do the needful and checking back if they have done so, till a habit is formed.
Those who send/bring their dogs to the park opposite N 101 and are happy to be part of this WhatsApp group may directly message the undersigned and we will be happy to enroll them in this community so that we stay connected for this shared cause.
Whilst Swachh Bharat is a vision worth pursuing, let us make a collective humble beginning at least in this area.
