On an average, the civic body has aimed to sterilise at least 40,000 stray dogs a year. This year, however, the civic agency hopes to increase the numbers of dogs sterilised to 80,000.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been inundated with complaints of street dogs. It has decided to sterilise twice as many dogs this year as it did last year. Ever since the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme of the BBMP began in 2000, the BBMP has sterilised about 3 lakh street dogs.
On an average, the civic body has aimed to sterilise at least 40,000 stray dogs a year. This year, however, the civic agency hopes to increase the numbers of dogs sterilised to 80,000.
Although the latest census of street dogs was conducted in 2007, and no updated statistics in the matter are available, civic agencies claim that there has been a steep rise in the numbers of complaints about stray dogs.
An expansion of the ABC programme was necessitated by the sheer expansion of the Palike’s jurisdictional area from nearly 300 sq km to about 800 sq km in January 2008.
As per BBMP and animal husbandry records, the census of 2007 showed that there were 1,86,758 stray dogs and 1,43,572 pet dogs in city limits. The animal husbandry department recently conducted a census of pet dogs alone, to find that there were 1,23,266 pet dogs in Bangalore Urban and 1,63,777 pet dogs in Bangalore Rural.
Joint director (statistics) of the animal husbandry department, K Narayan, said that his department had not conducted any census of street dogs. Speaking to DNA, the joint director of the animal husbandry wing of the BBMP, Dr Parvez Ahmad Piran, said that the ABC programme was functioning well, and approximately 3,500 dogs were sterilised each month; around 75 were found so sickly that they need to be put down.
“We are now calling for agencies to increase the target of sterilisation and vaccination to 80,000-90,000 dogs per year. Over the last 10 years, the target has been covering up to 40,000 street dogs each year. Last year, 29,349 dogs were sterilised,” Piran said.
The BBMP leases out the work of sterilisation of street dogs on yearly contracts to NGOs working with animals like Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), Karuna, Krupa and Animal Rights Fund. Koramangala, Jayanagar, Frazer Town and Richmond Town are among the areas that report the largest number of complaints about street dogs.
Dr Sheela Rao, trustee of CUPA which has been involved with the ABC programme, said that the spread of the BBMP sterilisation work has been limited. Bommanahalli, Yelahanka, Whitefield, and KR Puram, for instance, have not yet been covered.
Rao explained that the street dog menace cannot be controlled by intense efforts in limited areas; the menace is also linked to the garbage disposal problem, she said.
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