Mumbai: With complaints of stray cats in various parts of the city growing, the BMC has urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private agencies to come forward to help with their sterilisation.
The corporation has set aside a sum of Rs1 crore for the project in the current year, with Rs 2,000 per cat sterilised set as the price. The BMC runs a moderately successful animal birth control (ABC) project to curb the population of stray dogs in the city and suburbs. According to the corporation’s Health Department, 33,166 dogs were sterilised in the past two years.
However, BMC dog control officers have noticed that as the population of stray dogs in certain areas has gone down, the number of stray cats has increased.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma said, "It is a natural phenomenon. If dogs are fewer, then the number of cats increases."
Dr Karimpasha Pathan, general manager of the Deonar abattoir, said, "One thing is for sure, that the number of cats in Mumbai has increased. We have issued an advertisement and appealed to NGOs and agencies to come forward to sterilise stray cats. The last date for accepting proposals is Sep 20."
Pathan said, however, that there had been no census of stray dogs and cats in the city since 2014. "It was to be done in 2020 but the pandemic intervened,” he said, adding that the exercise is now likely to be carried out next January.
The BMC began sterilising stray cats in 2019. The work was assigned to the NGO In Defense of Animals, which runs the programme at its shelter in Deonar, and the Bombay Veterinary College at Parel. But the BMC now wants to involve more agencies in the work.
So far, only about 5,700 cats have been sterilised by the two organisations involved in the work since 2019. According to Dr Pathan, there are many hurdles in the task.
“First of all, we have to find people who will catch the cats and bring them to the sterilisation places,” he said. “Then we need to buy big cages to keep them after sterilisation. We have to keep them under observation for at least five days. And sometimes, people object to sterilisation centres near their residences."
