Cuttack, Dec. 5: A public interest litigation has been filed in Orissa High Court after a pack of stray dogs mauled a four-year-old child to death in Puri last Thursday.

The petition has sought action to address the growing canine menace in urban areas of the state.

The child, identified as Satyaban Rout, was playing near his house at Jagannath Colony in Puri when four stray dogs attacked him.

"Like Satyabrata, thousands of children have been victims of dog bites and rabies," the petition alleged.

Bibhuti Charam Mohanty, a lawyer, filed the petition on Saturday attributing the tragic incident to "negligence and inadequate steps of the state administration and civic authorities".

According to the petition, roaming dogs fight over solid waste and carcass of domestic animals, which are left in the open on public roads by municipal bodies.

The authorities are failing to control the menace, as they were not implementing the Annual Birth Control (Dogs) Rules in letter and spirit. The required sterilisation was not being carried out on stray dogs, the PIL contends.

The petition sought direction to the state government to pay "compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased".

In his petition, Mohanty also sought direction to the authorities "to control and check the stray dogs roaming within human inhabitations and also take necessary, appropriate or adequate action for the protection of human lives".

In the past few years, canine menace had resulted in many accidents and injury to several people and children, but the authorities have been indifferent to such incidents and not taken adequate steps to check the problem, the PIL reads.

In other similar incidents, a stray dog attacked a two-year-old child at Talcher in Angul district. The dog bit the kid on his arms.

Another dog bit an advocate on the court premises.

Twelve victims of attacks by stray dogs have been admitted at Talcher Sadar Hospital today.