There are scores of people who work day and night at the city airport to ease your journey. Some of these workers, though, remain anonymous. A handful of people outside of the airport know about their existence and how they work to keep the passengers and flights safe.
One such person is Prumal Nadar, a man in his mid-forties, who is amongst the 17-odd workers whose job profile is to keep the airport's runway safe by catching the dogs entering the airport. Hailing from a lower-middle-class family background, Nadar and his colleagues have been well-trained in the art of dog catching by dog experts and civic authorities.
After not being able to get a stable job for the most part of his adult life, Nadar, who is barely literate, joined the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) as dog catcher since 2008. "When I joined, we used to catch around 100 dogs every week. But since then there has been a gradual decrease. At present, not more than two dogs a week get caught entering the airport boundary," he said.
According to the airport authorities, the stray dogs are in abundance due to slums surrounding the airport. The butchers' and chicken shops and piled garbage attract the stray dogs. But the fortification of the boundary walls, and the increase in their height, as well as electrification of the walls, has helped in containing the problem to a great extent, insist airport officials.
12/07/15 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis
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One such person is Prumal Nadar, a man in his mid-forties, who is amongst the 17-odd workers whose job profile is to keep the airport's runway safe by catching the dogs entering the airport. Hailing from a lower-middle-class family background, Nadar and his colleagues have been well-trained in the art of dog catching by dog experts and civic authorities.
After not being able to get a stable job for the most part of his adult life, Nadar, who is barely literate, joined the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) as dog catcher since 2008. "When I joined, we used to catch around 100 dogs every week. But since then there has been a gradual decrease. At present, not more than two dogs a week get caught entering the airport boundary," he said.
According to the airport authorities, the stray dogs are in abundance due to slums surrounding the airport. The butchers' and chicken shops and piled garbage attract the stray dogs. But the fortification of the boundary walls, and the increase in their height, as well as electrification of the walls, has helped in containing the problem to a great extent, insist airport officials.
12/07/15 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis
