New Delhi: Around 250-300 dogs along with their octogenarian caretaker were thrown out of their house by workers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as the national capital shivers from dipping mercury. Pratima Devi, the caretaker of the dogs, told news agency ANI that the MCD workers demolished her jhuggi and shop.
They “took away my belongings and also beat my dogs,” said Devi, who has “at least 250 to 300 dogs.”
“I am sitting under the tree now with my dogs,” she said, adding “the dogs have not been fed” since morning.
“I came to Delhi in 1984. Since then I've been taking care of dogs. I am 80 years old now. I don't have the physical strength to move around or look for work. I want to stay here and take care of these dogs for as long as I live,” she told the news agency.
The plight of Pratima Devi also needs to be highlighted as the temperatures decrease in the national capital. On Monday, the minimum temperature settled at 7.6 degree Celsius, and the Meteorological Department of India predicted dense fog for Tuesday with effect on visibility levels.
'Dense' to 'very dense' fog and cold wave conditions are very likely to continue over the plains of northwest India during the next four days, the weather department said.
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According to the India Meteorological Department, 'very dense' fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 metres is 'dense', 201 and 500 metres 'moderate', and 501 and 1,000 metres 'shallow'.
The minimum temperature had settled at 5.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday, two notches below the season's average, it said. The minimum temperature in the city was recorded at 10.7 degrees Celsius on Friday and 10.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday. Delhi's 24-hour air quality index at 4 pm on Monday read 357.