Strays loiter in front of Milanda’s Canteen at Jadavpur University. Picture by Sayantan Ghosh

Jadavpur University is a divided house over dogs, one group demanding that all strays be driven out of the campus and another doggedly defending their four-legged friends’ right to roam.

Campus insiders say not a day goes by without a spat over strays, some even raising the subject at official meetings. Registrar Pradip Kumar Ghosh admitted that complaints about dog attacks had mounted along with an increase in the population of strays.

“There have been complaints from students, teachers and other staff members about the dog menace. We have sought the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s help to find a solution,” he told Metro.

Unofficial estimates put the number of strays on the sprawling campus at more than 150, double the population barely a couple of years ago. Nobody remembers the last time the civic body carried out sterilisation of strays on the campus.

“I narrowly escaped being bitten on at least three occasions before my luck ran out. Last month, I was returning from my department in the evening when I was attacked without provocation…. I had to take those painful anti-rabies shots for no fault of mine,” recounted Kanak Sarkar, who teaches international relations.

But for every person who freezes at the sight of a mongrel, there seems to be another who would stop to offer a biscuit.

“If you visit an AC classroom now, you will either find Bhondu or Bagha snoring away in a corner. They are not a menace. They don’t attack students or our professors except playfully chewing clothes and bags. The only valid complaint is that they smell. But then, so do so many students!” argued Abhinanda Datta, a second-year student of English.

Try telling that to the metallurgy department employee who was chased and bitten by a stray a few days ago. “I was returning to my quarters around 8.30pm after finishing a project when a dog appeared out of nowhere and — wham! — it bit my leg,” he recalled.

At least seven such cases have been reported in the past fortnight alone, sources said.

“The worst part is that the strays have access to the academic buildings. Be it the staircase or the corridors, there are dogs sleeping or loitering even during class hours,” said a student of mechanical engineering.

The attacks have allegedly been so sudden that teachers and students have had to protect themselves by throwing a bunch of books or whatever they were carrying at the strays.

But teacher and dog lover Debashis Roy, a member of the engineering faculty, said that strays were far from aggressive. “Dogs get scared in threatening situations and in most instances of people getting bitten at JU, the trigger has been provocation,” he insisted.

Undergraduate student Agrima Tikader can’t imagine life on campus without petting a stray. “The joy of seeing a dog wag its tail is a stress-buster after a tiring day. I surely wouldn't want to miss out on that,” she said.

A stray rests in the middle of a road within the Jadavpur University campus

The raging dog debate isn’t the first of its kind within an academic institution. In 2010, JNU students on either side of the divide were locked in verbal combat over whether strays should be banished. The rumpus on campus had been triggered by instances of dogs biting some visually challenged students.

At JU, those at the receiving end of allegedly unprovoked canine attacks blame their animal-lover colleagues for the stray nuisance snowballing into a serious problem.

“Many students treat the strays like their personal pets. They bring food and have the dogs follow them wherever they go, unmindful of other people who might feel uncomfortable about it,” said a professor who declined to be named.

Sterilisation and vaccination are ostensibly only part of the solution. “A large section of teachers and students want the dogs to be rounded up and sent to a rehabilitation centre. But how do we do that without antagonising the animal lovers, who do not want a single stray to be driven out?” a senior university official wondered.

Now that’s a question tougher to answer than wagging the dog.