Srinagar, May 19 -- Every night in Koolipora Khanyar, I lie in bed listening. Not to stillness, but to the snarling and barking of stray dogs. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes they just howl for hours. Either way, no one sleeps.

It's worse in the mornings. When I send my daughter to school, I don't just hand her a lunchbox, I hand her a stick.

I walk with her the short distance because I can't risk letting her go alone. That's our reality now: we live in fear, and we move through our own neighbourhood like trespassers.

The numbers say it all. Between April 2023 and March 2024, SMHS Hospital in Srinagar recorded 8,652 dog bite cases-the highest in a decade.

Over six years, there have been more than 30,000 cases. These aren't just statis...