Mumbai: The BMC administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal has approved the proposal to count the free-roaming dogs in the city. Accordingly, the actual survey to determine the population of stray dogs will start next month. The civic body will be using a GPS method to locate the dog population in all the 24 administrative wards in the city.
The BMC launched an 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, while 1.30 lakhs dogs have been sterilized since 2015. But the increasing number of strays in the last few years, indicates the BMC's failure to implement the birth control program effectively, complains an activist. In order to create a database and plan birth control strategies for stray dogs, the BMC has undertaken a survey after nine years.
Survey will provide suggestions for effective birth control strategies
"The proposal has received final approval from the Administrator and we have informed the Humane Society International (H.S.I.), who will conduct the survey of stray dogs. The survey report is expected to have the age, sex ratio, and reproductive status of the free-roaming dogs in the city and to give suggestions for effective birth control strategies. The programme will also include a widespread rabies vaccination campaign, comprehensive and compulsory registration, microchip identification." said the civic official.
The total cost of the survey will be around ₹12.67 lakh and it will take four months to complete. Meanwhile, the contract period of six non-governmental organisations that carry out the sterilisation program has ended in March 2023. So the civic body will renew the contract for the next three years at the cost of Rs. 11 crores. "We are also trying to rope in 2-3 additional NGOs in the sterilisation program," said a civic official. Around 3.7 lakhs of dog bites cases have been reported in the city since 2018 to 2022.
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