The Hindu : New Delhi News : A boost for MCD stray dog sterilisation drive

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A boost for MCD stray dog sterilisation drive

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

“80 lakh dogs across the country to be sterilised in 10 years”

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh’s announcement over the weekend that nearly 80 lakh stray dogs across the country would be sterilised in the next 10 years has come as a shot in the arm for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that had undertaken a programme in this regard in 2003 and sterilised 72,620 dogs till June 2007.

While the MCD has been working with the assistance of nine non-government organizations, the drive has been only partially successful thus far. For lack of an adequate infrastructure, the sterilisation drive failed to keep pace with the increase in the population of stray dogs and in January this year the MCD was compelled to rope in an NGO, Wildlife SOS, to conduct a survey of the stray dogs in the city and assess whether sterilisation of dogs has actually worked.

But following the renewed interest in the field now, the MCD is hopeful that the problem of stray dogs would be dealt with effectively. A senior MCD official said on Saturday that he was hopeful that with greater Central assistance the stray dog issue would now be settled effectively.

Referring to Mr. Ramesh’s statement that the plan to sterilise the stray dogs would be circulated to all municipal bodies in the next fortnight and they would then be required to set themselves a time-frame to implement it, an MCD spokesperson said the Corporation was the first in the country to undertake a drive to sterilise the stray dogs.

The Society for Stray Canine Birth Control (SSCBC) was formed by the MCD Commissioner in December 2002 to sterilise stray dogs before the Commonwealth Games. Thereafter nine NGOs began working with MCD under this project.

The Corporation was responsible for catching the strays and handing them over to the NGOs and it earmarked 56 posts for dog-catchers. Also, one van was deputed with six NGOs to assist in catching the stray dogs. Almost 400 to 500 dogs were allotted to each NGO and Rs.445 per dog paid to each by the Animal Welfare Board of India for sterilisation.

“After the sterilisation, the dogs are kept under observation for about five days in the hospital and then they are released back into the very area they are picked from so that they are not lost and do not become ferocious,” said an MCD official.

Noting that a check has been kept on the NGOs by the Corporation to see that fake claims of sterilisation are not made, the official said a committee has been constituted for supervising the process and it counts the organs that are removed and then sees to it that they are scientifically disposed of as well.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 20,000 people die of rabies every year in India, while in the National Capital Region the number of deaths due to rabies have come down from 217 in 2003 to 188 in 2006. Overall because of the sterilisation programme the number of case of dog-bite has also declined. While 17,665 cases were reported in 2006, the number for the first six months of 2007 was 5,887.

As for sterilisation in Delhi, the number has increased with each passing year. While it was 8,875 in 2001-02, it went up to 11,014 in 2002-03, 12,538 in 2003-04, 16,905 in 2004-05 and 18,000 in 2005-06. But despite these numbers, in the absence of a concerted effort the number of stray dogs also kept increasing at an alarming pace.

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