Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing its action plan to control the increasing population of stray dogs in the smart city.
As per the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme under the Animal Welfare Board of the Government of India, a targeted approach to sterilise and treat 600 dogs per month was finalised at a meeting chaired by BMC deputy commissioner Shyam Sundar Sethy recently. As per the plan, two teams will be operating in the wards on the working days.
Each team would comprise one doctor, two catchers, one supporting resource and one driver. “The teams would be given a target of around 30 dogs every day. This is based on a calculation of 20 working days on an average,” said nodal officer Trilochan Sahoo. The action would help reap triple benefits – reduction of dog population, dog vaccination and rabies control, he added.
A dog is treated for five days under the programme where male and female dogs are included under the service.
Based on the calculation by Animal Welfare Board, there are around 46,000 dogs in Bhubaneswar (as per 2015 data).
The state Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department has provisioned an amount of Rs 500 per day per dog which includes all services under ABC programme.
