What a mother's grief truly means when she loses her child is perhaps something only a mother can understand. Whether human or dog. When a child dies before a mother's eyes, it is difficult for any mother to accept. This is exactly what happened on Hospital Road in Mainaguri town of Jalpaiguri.
On Friday morning, a puppy died after being hit by a reckless toto. The mother dog could do nothing, even after witnessing the death of her innocent child before her eyes. Eventually, the canine sat beside her child's corpse throughout the day, mourning. Even after the night's bitter cold and fog reduced visibility, the mother continued to sit guarding her child's dead body.
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Those who regularly commute through Mainaguri's Hospital Road reported that they saw the dog sitting beside the dead puppy on Friday morning. On Saturday morning, too, the dog was seen sitting in the same spot. Seeing this, many people were emotional and approached the dog. They tried to separate the mother from the corpse. But they were unsuccessful. Finally, in the afternoon that day, municipal workers came and, after trying for quite some time, separated the mother from the dead puppy. The municipal workers themselves buried the puppy.
Regarding this matter, Naren Dam, a resident of the local Hospital Para, said, "I saw the mother dog sitting beside the dead puppy on Friday. She was sitting in the same way today as well. The mother dog was seen charging several times at passing motorbikes and totos. Perhaps she couldn't accept the pain of losing her child."
Debabrata De, a resident of Hospital Para, calls the mother dog "Kali" and occasionally feeds her. On Friday, when he came to feed her as usual, he was disturbed after witnessing the heartbreaking scene. He tried to feed the mother dog but failed. He couldn't get close to her. According to Debabrata, "I tried to feed her today as well. But I couldn't manage it at all. I was able to feed Kali a little in the evening, long after the municipal workers came and took the child away."
Four to five days ago, in Dinhata town on Jhuripara Road, a speeding motorbike ran over a puppy and drove away. That puppy's mother also sat motionless in the same way, guarding her child's dead body.
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Not just this incident, but another tragic event involving street dogs occurred in Mainaguri on the same day. Near the overbridge in Ward No. 4 of the municipality, a person abandoned five puppies. A toto driver noticed this in the afternoon.
He rescued the puppies and provided them with safe shelter. Manik Das, a Mainaguri resident and animal lover, expressed anger over the incident. According to him, "Public life is distressed by the bitter cold. In such circumstances, such cruel behaviour by some people is truly painful. Whoever did this should receive appropriate punishment."
Municipal Vice Chairman Somesh Sanyal is also disturbed by these consecutive incidents involving street dogs. His statement: "One should be sensitive about any living being. Drivers of totos, motorbikes, and cars need to drive more carefully. In the future, if we can identify the culprits in such incidents, we will appeal to the administration to take action against them."
