Mumbai: BMC to conduct stray dog population survey

Mumbai: The number of stray dogs is increasing alarmingly in the city. Therefore, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to carry out a survey to determine the population of the 'free-roaming' dogs in the city from next month, so as to create a database and thereby adopt birth control strategies.

The BMC has claimed that they have sterilised 1.12 lakh dogs since 2017.

Meanwhile, the activists raised questions over the effectiveness of BMC's sterilisation program and have demanded to involve animal lovers in counting the dog population.

The civic body has launched animal birth control programme for the strays in 1994. A total of 95,172 stray dogs were found in the last survey conducted in 2014. But the BMC has failed to implement the birth control program effectively, and the number the strays doubled in the past few years, complains an activist. So to create a database and plan birth control strategies for stray dogs, the BMC has invited a tender to conduct a survey.

Accordingly, the civic body will appoint a contractor who will conduct survey in all 24 administrative wards. “They are expected to submit reports with age, sex ratio and reproductive status of the free-roaming dogs in the city and to give suggestions based on reports,” said the civic official. But for effective birth control strategies, the civic body will have to consider animal lovers and NGOs working for it, said the animal activist.

Sunish Subramanian, Secretary of Plant and Animals Welfare Society, Mumbai (PAWS), said, “BMC's sterilisation centres can be counted on fingertips. Also, the lack of awareness about the program has affected the sterilisation work. So the civic authority should start sterilisation centres in each ward. The monitoring committee has civic officials and the NGO involved in the program. For transparency in work, they should have a third party on its committee. BMC should conduct the survey in coordination with local animal lovers."

Sandesh Kolapte, the founder of NGO named 'Manuski' (Humanity), said, "There is no proper execution of the sterilisation program. In fact, it has slowed down after the Covid pandemic. The dogs' number has increased by lakhs in the past few years. We want BMC to involve the citizens and dog lovers to successfully implement the sterilisation and population counting program.

Dog bite cases
2018-March 2022

3,07,652
Jan-August 2022
50,622

1.12 lakh dogs sterilised since 2018
Cost of the surveyRs10 lakh
The survey will give exact data about the number of strays in the city Based on the report, BMC will carry out vaccination and sterilisation program

Published on: Wednesday, December 21, 2022, 02:45 AM IST