An emergency meeting of the animal welfare committee at Jadavpur University has been convened on Monday following protests by a section of teachers and students against the panel’s curbs on feeding dogs on the campus.
A university official said the meeting would discuss possible feeding zones on campus after the committee barred the usual spots due to complaints of dog bites.
The university has also approached the civic body for the vaccination and sterilisation of the dogs on the campus.
More than 600 students wrote to the vice-chancellor to protest the curbs imposed by the animal welfare committee at a meeting held on May 18.
The students and teachers who met vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee on Friday condemned the recent restrictions, alleging that the measures “were geared towards eliminating animals”.
Diganta Saha, chairman of the committee, said the resolutions adopted at the May 18 meeting had raised concerns about the fate of the dogs on campus.
“We will try to assuage the concerns. The animal welfare committee had recommended certain measures following incidents of dog bites on the campus. But we are not against the dogs, which are an integral part of the campus,” said Saha, who is also a professor in the computer science and engineering department at Jadavpur University.
On Friday, the VC said he was against “the harassment of the dogs”.
A JU official said the concerns cropped up because the committee, in its resolution, while barring feeding dogs and cats within JU’s main campus and National Instruments Limited campus at Jadavpur, and Salt Lake campuses, particularly in crowded areas like canteens, student hostels and the gates, did not say anything on the alternative feeding sites.
Similarly, while resolving that all the dogs on the campus have to be captured and sent away to be vaccinated and sterilised, the committee did not say anything about bringing them back, the official said.
The protesting students and teachers said in their memorandum submitted to the VC that no designated dog feeding zone had been “indicated by the committee in its regulations”.
“The committee seems to want the dogs to starve,” the memorandum said.
Samarpita Mitra, one of the protesting JU teachers, said they hoped that the committee on Monday would say something on creating designated feeding zones so that the dogs can co-exist with humans on the campus, “as has been the tradition”.
One of the feeding sites could be the open-air theatre, she said.
“We have a gym on the campus. That can be used as well. We have six places in mind. Let the meeting take place,” Saha, the chairman of the committee, told Metro.
He clarified that they were committed to bringing the dogs back to the campus after vaccination and sterilisation.
“At the same time, we have to decide on setting up nets at the gates so we can prevent the entry of dogs from outside the campus,” said a committee member.