Two young brothers were reportedly mauled to death by stray dogs in New Delhi during separate incidents within three days, sending Indians up in arms over the persistent stray situation in the city’s capital.

Seven-year-old Anand was initially reported missing from his home in a slum in Vasant Kunj on Friday afternoon.

The boy was found two hours later in a secluded area with “multiple injuries on his body”, which the police deduced were inflicted by stray canines in the area.

Local media reported that his body was found in blood-stained clothes with marks on his feet, back, hips, neck and head.

His family’s misery was compounded two days later on Sunday, when more stray dogs surrounded and attacked his younger brother Aditya, five, who had left his house with a cousin for the nearby woods to relieve himself. He died before he could be taken to hospital.

“The injuries looked like animal bites,” said a police officer. “When we questioned neighbours and locals, it came to light that there are many stray dogs inside the jungle, and they often attack goats and pigs.”

The double tragedy over a short span of three days has left the mourning family in shock.

A family relative known as Sucharita said: “We were all busy with (Anand’s) last rites when the same happened with Aditya. We are scared and angry. Why didn’t the authorities do something to help us?”

Their mother and sole breadwinner Sushma was still coming to terms with the events that killed two of her three sons.

“My boys were innocent. I wanted them to study and not struggle like us… to have a better life. All that is gone,” she told The Indian Express. “I am still in shock… Why have (the dogs) become this violent? I want strict action. My boys were only going to play outside and were close to our house. How could this happen?”

Ms Sushma, who reportedly worked at a beauty parlour in a nearby village, said she would leave the neighbourhood with her eldest son Ansh.

The police have said they will take further action with more information from the two boys’ autopsies.

The fallout from the deaths has been a lament at how often this has happened in a country where more than 5,500 daily cases of dog bites were reported in 2022. 

“Stray dogs are wandering everywhere and many of them are rabies affected, vicious and dangerous,” Mr V. K. Biju, a lawyer from southern state Kerala, told local media after the death of a 12-year-old girl in the state from the viral disease in September.

“We see who the victims are, they are the poor and daily wagers who wake up for work early in the morning when it is dark, children, women and those on motorbikes.

“We are giving more importance to stray dogs than human beings.”

Stray dogs numbered more than 60 million in 2021 in India. Dog bites are also tied to rabies, with dogs making up 99 per cent of all rabies transmissions to humans.

The numbers of strays increase the threat posed by the untamed, unvaccinated canines in India, which also accounts for 36 per cent of the world’s rabies deaths.

According to the World Health Organisation, around 18,000 to 20,000 people in India die from rabies every year.

“How many more people must die for the government to do something about the stray dogs menace in India?” said one Delhi resident on Twitter, commenting on the death of the two boys.