Indore (Madhya Pradesh): It seems that the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) will be hard-pressed to fulfil the assurance given by mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav recently when he claimed that Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) will sterilise 60,000 stray canines by the end of this year as it has just neutered just 230 dogs in the month of January.
“We have sterilised over 2 lakh stray dogs in the city. The remaining 50,000 to 60,000 dogs will be sterilised by the end of 2024,” the mayor had told reporters sometime back.
The fact is that in the past decade, the IMC has sterilised about 2 lakh dogs and it officially claims to be sterilising 30-40 dogs a day but as per the data of January 2024 the civic body has managed to sterilise only 7-8 dogs a day on an average.
If the corporation maintains this pace it will sterilise only around 2,500 dogs a year which means it will take 23 years for the corporation to sterilise these 60,000 dogs and in the meanwhile, their population will grow manifold.
The ever-increasing canine population in the city has reached approximately 3 lakh in 2023 which is roughly 10 per cent of the city population (32 lakh) and it has become a major problem for the administrators. Every month, an average of 3,600 people, i.e. 120 people every day or 5 people every hour are being attacked by the strays.
Last month Indore Municipal Corporation decided to launch a month-long drive during which dogs would be fed an adequate amount of food and their behaviour would be monitored. However, no updates have been received so far from the corporation regarding the drive.
There has been a continuous increase in the number of dog bite cases over the years.
According to the data from Hukum Chand Poly Clinic (Lal Hospital), 44,016 people were bitten by dogs in 2023. In 2022 this number was 40,249, whereas 6 years ago i.e. in the year 2016, this figure was 20,455.
Dog bites woman in Manavta Sarvsampann Nagar
A dog attacked and bit a woman in Manavta Sarvsampanm Nagar on Saturday. The victim is the wife of Nitin Salecha. Salecha said that the incident took place on Saturday morning. His wife heard a noise outside the house. When she went out of her house to find out the source of the noise she saw a child screaming and a dog barking wildly at the child. She tried to shoo away the dog to save the child which resulted in the dog turning its attention towards her and biting her on her hand and also scratching her thigh. She has received treatment.
Interview with MiC member
Free Press spoke to MiC member Ashwini Shukla who is incharge of the health department over this issue.
* What measures have been taken for dog sterilisation?
* We have issued tender to two agencies for sterilising dogs in the city
* What about future plans and present drive?
* Presently, we are sterilising four to five dogs per day. We are planning to set up another centre for sterilising the dogs
* What about increasing canine population?
* The dogs living in nearby rural areas and villages are coming into the city and this is increasing their population
Dog bite cases in the past
Month 2022 2023
January 3728 4068
February 3441 3764
March 3682 3883
April 3451 3663
May 3447 3882
June 3114 3409
July 3011 3166
August 2749 3266
September 3139 3430
October 3062 3704
November 3555 3252
December 3870 4251
Dog Bites in past 5 years
2023 - 44016
2022 - 40249
2021 - 32325
2020 - 27694
2019 - 32647
