The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) running a sterilization drive of stray dogs doesn’t have any idea as to how many dogs are there on the streets of Ranchi.
A team of experts is looking for the dogs in the city to keep the population of canines under check. Strangely the drive is running with an objective but without any deadline.The municipal body is in the process of hiring new agency for sterlising canines that incidentally pose a threat to human of all age and the main reason for the deadly rabies. For the time being an NGO Hope & Animal Trust is being given one-month’s extension to carry out the work.
“Decision on the next agency will be taken within a month. The current agency has been given extension on the same rates,” said Senior Public Relations Officer of RMC Ram Krishna Kumar. The municipal body is as informed about the population of stray dogs as anyone in the city. About 7,000 to 8,000 dogs are sterlised every month.But, there is no exact figure of the number of dogs that needs to be sterlised to control the menace of dogs.
Even there is no empirical evidence to ascertain effectiveness of the sterlisation drive which is being conducted every year. “We have no empirical evidence to ascertain how much the drive has been successful so far. You can verify that physically. There are very few puppies on the streets of Ranchi,” said Health Officer of RMC AK Manjhi.
The only way to count the number of sterilised canines is to count the genitals of the animal that is removed in the operation. Also, the sterlisation process is rarely monitored by health officials of RMC hence population control in a way is left at the mercy of the agency in-charge of freeing the city of unmanageable crowd of the animal.