Scores of stray dogs in the Capital may soon find a safe and secure shelter. In a first, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) will come up with a dog adoption & care centre. Struggling to control the dog population in its area, the NMC has come up with this idea to provide permanent shelter to dogs that are usually meted out cruel treatment by corporation employees during sterilisation process.
Senior officials of the corporation said the adoption-cum-care centre would provide a home to the stray canines. “While the corporation will be providing shelters to these animals, people will also be able to adopt them from our centres. Instead of keeping them with us, we will be giving them to dog lovers that in turn will give the canines a new life and a home,” officials said. The idea of the dog adoption centre was mooted a few years ago by the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) but the matter was put on hold owing to multiple bureaucratic hurdles and the subsequent trifurcation and municipal elections.
After trifurcation of the MCD, dog catching and sterilisation process had taken a hit in North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations’ areas as all NGOs awarded with the responsibility were located in South Delhi. In absence of any dog sterilisation centre in north and east Delhi, the corporation fears the dog population would go up. “Nine NGOs were roped in by the unified MCD to carry out the sterilisation programme to control the population of dogs in the Capital and all of them are now within the jurisdiction of SDMC. It is, therefore, very difficult to control stray dog menace in EDMC and NMC,” said an official of veterinary department of NMC.
Currently, sterilisation of canines is being done by NGOs who run sterilisation centre at different locations. The stray dogs are picked by the staff members in a van and taken to the centres for sterilisation, before dropping them back to the place from where they were picked. The civic body officials said the system has failed to yield desired results. last year, only 2,368 stray dogs were sent for sterilisation. “The new initiative will help in checking the dog population and also provide a proper shelter to the canines,” he added. According to a survey done by the unified MCD a couple of years ago, there were around 2.6 lakh stray dogs in Delhi out of which nearly 1.7 lakh stray dogs are in the NDMC and EDMC area.
Meanwhile, leader of House in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Mahender Nagpal said that the corporation has begun the process of setting up a dog sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination centre. A site of the 1,000 sqm for the centre has been identified at Timarpur near old cattle pond. He said the decision has been taken in wake of the frequent complaints of dog bites in its areas.