Thaindian News

Fatehpur Sikri (Uttar Pradesh), March 24 (IANS) Two female foreign tourists were attacked by a mad dog at Mughal emperor Akbar’s erstwhile capital at Fatehpur Sikri near Agra, causing worry among travel agents.

Travel agents, who filed a complaint with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Thursday, urged the conservation agency to to free the monument complex of stray dogs.

Two tourists, one Iranian and the other American, were Wednesday
bitten by a dog said to be mad. Angry hawkers and guides later attacked the dog, which died late evening.

Reports suggests that the Iranian woman was bitten as she was boarding a vehicle. An hour later, the American woman was attacked by the same dog.

The victims were taken to a health centre, but no doctor was available there. Guides said the tourists were so infuriated that they returned without visiting the monument.

However, the ASI in-charge at Fatehpur Sikri, Munazzar Ali, told IANS: “We have nothing to do with this. In our complex, we do not allow stray animals. The problem is at Uttar Pradesh’s Tourism’s Gulistan restaurant where the tourists were perhaps attacked by the dogs.”

“For the safety of the tourists within the Sikri complex, we have adequate forces to deal with canine nuisance. For everything that goes wrong, the ASI gets a bad name,” he said.

The canine, bovine and asinine nuisance, not to mention the simian menace, at the monuments in Agra has caused acute concern bothto tourists and agents for quite some time.

“In all the monuments from Ram Bagh, Etmauddaula to the Taj, you have hordes of dogs and other stray animals which keep attacking the tourists. But nobody does anything about curbing the menace,” said Ved Gautam, a guide.

In Agra city, a stray bull injured over a dozen people Wednesday.

“The high drama started early morning when someone is believed to have fed the bull some ‘bhang’ (cannabis). The animal started attacking everyone left and right,” said Rajesh, an eyewitness.