As grand plans are being drawn to rebuild a nearly-century-old Government Veterinary Hospital on Queens Road, trees and animals seem to be facing the heat.
On Thursday, doctors at a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) animal birth control centre — which has gone without power for four days — had little choice but to see the life being snuffed out of a stray dog. The centre is located in the hospital premises.
“The dog had been critical and was brought on Tuesday with a broken spine. It was in deep pain,” said Akshay Prakash, a veterinarian with Sarvodaya Sevabhavi Samstha, which is running the centre. “Due to lack of power, we could neither use infra-red therapy to treat the dog nor perform any surgery because the machines to sterilise our instruments would not work,” he said.
Two other critically-injured dogs, and vials of anti-rabies vaccines, were shifted out. The centre’s daily routine of neutering dogs (an average of 25 a day) has come to a halt.
The centre is in the cross-hairs after the Animal Husbandry Department decided to demolish its old clinics and build a new two-storey hospital. The process will take 11 months. During this period, the hospital is expected to function from the premises housing the centre. Hence, the department has begun the process of reclaiming the building from which the NGO operates.
While officials said that an eviction notice was served on May 10, Sarvodaya personnel claimed it was handed to them last Friday. By Monday, their power supply had been cut. “We conducted one emergency operation on a dog using the lights in our mobile phones,” said Vinay Moray from Sarvodaya.
The veterinary hospital has five doctors and more than 15 support staff. They treat more than 20 livestock of central Bengaluru, and over 50 cats and dogs daily, said one of the doctors in the department. “The new facility will be a 24x7 hospital. But until it is ready, we will need to shift to neighbouring buildings to continue our work. The dog centre can be run from anywhere, but we need to be here,” the doctor explained.
During a meeting, the BBMP promised to restore power to the centre within a couple of days. Civic officials also said that ‘efforts’ would be made to relocate the centre to a larger space on Victoria Road.
‘Two trees will be saved’
There are over 60 trees in the canopy-covered premises, but four huge, rain trees were to be felled for the project. Citizens want to avoid this loss and shared their concerns with Member of Parliament P.C. Mohan who visited the hospital on Thursday.
“The designs have to be changed to ensure these massive trees are not cut... these have been breathing for the city for decades,” Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, an activist, told the MP.
Mr. Mohan said, “There were rumours that 56 trees would be cut. Actually, only the trees in the centre will be affected. The design will be changed to save two trees. There is no option but to cut the other two.”
