The Hindu 13.07.2009

A boost for MCD stray dog sterilisation drive

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh’s announcement over the weekend that nearly 80 lakh stray dogs across the country would be sterilised in the next 10 years has come as a shot in the arm for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that had undertaken a programme in this regard in 2003 and sterilised 72,620 dogs till June 2007.

While the MCD has been working with the assistance of nine NGOs, the drive has been only partially successful thus far. For lack of an adequate infrastructure, it failed to keep pace with the increase in the population of stray dogs and in January this year the MCD was compelled to rope in an NGO, Wildlife SOS, to conduct a survey of the stray dogs in the city and assess whether sterilisation of dogs has actually worked.

But following the renewed interest in the field now, the MCD is hopeful that the problem would be dealt with effectively. A senior MCD official on Saturday said he was hopeful tat with greater Central assistance the issue would now be settled effectively.

Referring to Mr. Ramesh’s statement that the plan to sterilise the stray dogs would be circulated to all municipal bodies in the next fortnight and they would then be required to set themselves a time-frame to implement it, an MCD spokesperson said the Corporation was the first in the country to undertake such a drive.

The Society for Stray Canine Birth Control (SSCBC) was formed by the MCD Commissioner in December 2002 to sterilise stray dogs before the Commonwealth Games. Thereafter nine NGOs began working with MCD under this project.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 20,000 people die of rabies every year in India, while in the NCR the number of deaths due to rabies have come down from 217 in 2003 to 188 in 2006.