The city witnesses around 85,000 dog bites every year, though the number reduced by half this year probably due to the lockdown
A female dog can give birth to at least four puppies per year. File pic
After years of dragging its feet, the civic body finally wants to ramp up sterilisation of stray dogs by increasing its capacity to catch them by almost double. It is willing to pay Rs 680 per dog to catch and release them in their territory. The overall cost for two years would come up to Rs 2.37 crore to catch 34,000 dogs. The city witnesses around 85,000 dog bites every year, though the number reduced by half this year probably due to the lockdown.
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"An un-sterilised female dog can give birth to at least four puppies and they become fertile within a year. Thus the number of dogs has increased continuously. It is estimated that there are between 2 to 2.25 lakh dogs in the city and of these, 1.40 lakh are not sterilised," said Dr Yogesh Shetye, general manager of Deonar abattoir and project in charge. The BMC manages to catch 18,000 to 20,000 dogs for sterilisation with the help of three private agencies. There is a need to catch an additional 17,000 dogs for sterilisation.
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The BMC has been conducting sterilisation programmes for animals since 1994. As per the census of dogs in 2014, there were 95,174 of them in 2014 and 25,935 were found un-sterilised. Of the un-sterilised ones, 14,674 were male and 11,261 were female.
This would need seven vehicles catching eight dogs per day throughout the year. As per the proposal sent to the Standing Committee for approval, the BMC administration has recommended M/S Aarti Corporation, which is ready to provide seven vehicles, each with four expert personnel at the cost of Rs 2,37,61,920, with catching and releasing per dog costing Rs 680. Dogs are sent for sterilisation at designated centres after being caught. The rate will remain stable for two years. The contractor will be fined 10 per cent of the monthly payment if it fails to release the dog in its territory.
From 2014 to 2019, BMC sterilised 90,703 dogs at a cost of Rs 9 crore. Despite the huge number, dog bites did not reduce till 2019. The civic body also procured 90,000 rabies vaccines costing Rs 231 per unit at a total cost of Rs 2.07 crore this year. They are available at 101 Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) centres across the city.
No. of dog bites
2015 - 80,934
2016 - 82,564
2017 - 72,470
2018 - 85,546
2019 - 85,054
Till Oct 2020 - 46,032
Dogs caught
Year BMC Private Total
2014 3,587 3,649 7,236
2015 1,877 4,537 6,414
2016 5,231 6,734 11,965
2017 4,169 20,121 24,290
2018 2,978 18,908 21,886
2019 3,502 15,410 18,912
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