The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has spent ₹94.63 lakh out of the ₹1.05 crore allocated over the past two years for its Animal Birth Control programme to control the number of stray dogs, making it the local body with one of the highest spendings on sterilising stray dogs.
This is despite the fact that the pace of the ABC programme has dropped somewhat ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The civic body is only second to the Kozhikode Corporation, which has spent ₹1.03 crore out of the ₹1.64 crore allocated over the past two years for sterilising stray dogs. None of the other urban local bodies in the State come closer to the two Corporations in spendings on controlling stray dog numbers, as per figures placed in the Assembly.
Currently, the sterilisation of stray dogs which are caught from all the hundred wards of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation are being done in the facility attached to the Government Veterinary Hospital in Thiruvallam. Two veterinary doctors are currently carrying out sterilisation activities here. During the lockdown period, the sterilisation rate had fallen to 30 to 40 cases due to the shortage of dog-catchers, but recovered considerably afterwards. Before the pandemic, the average rate of sterilisation was at 400 per month.
After many false starts, during which private agencies which were contracted for the project left it before the process could even begin, the ABC programme in the city Corporation attained some level of stability only in August 2018, before which the programme had even come to a halt for about seven months. The steady numbers of sterilisations seems to have had some effect, as the number of stray dog bites reported from the city have come down drastically, over the past few years.
The pandemic has affected the plans for decentralisation of ABC activities by setting up sterilisation facilities in some of the 15 veterinary hospitals located within the Corporation area. There is also a plan to expand the facility at Thiruvallam by converting a large hall here into an operation theatre.
