BENGALURU: After seven years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) conducted dog census in the city and the findings are out. The numbers have gone up by 1 lakh. The stray dog population in the BBMP limits now is 3,09,972. The last census, held in 2012, put the number at close to 2 lakh.
The census was carried out jointly by Worldwide Veterinary Service Centre, Goa, Mission Rabies and BBMP in September and October. “I’m amazed to see the numbers. I thought it could have been more than 5 lakh. But it shows a minimum increase. The increase in population and the geographical area of the city can also be compared to the dog numbers increasing. But here the numbers do not show much of a difference,” said Nandita Subbarao, Animal Birth Control (ABC) volunteer.
Stray dog numbers are crucial to check the effectiveness of the Animal Birth Control programme. The highest number of dogs — 52,961—is recorded in RR Nagar followed by the East Zone (44,303), Mahadevpura (46,334), South zone (39,566), Bommanahalli (38,940), Yelahanka (36,217, West zone-(28,481) and Dasarahalli (23,170).
The total number of dogs neutered is only 1,68,119 and Yelahanka zone recorded the highest percentage in neutered dogs of 84.24 per cent while the least was South Zone recording 32.85 per cent.
However, the low numbers of neutered dogs have disappointed the animal volunteers.
“Considering that the number of dogs hasn’t increased, it is really good. The fact that the number of neutered ones is half the number of the total number of dogs is not good news. BBMP needs to proactively carry out its ABC programme.
In one ABC centre, between 300 and 500 dogs are neutered in a month which will be about 4,000 dogs a year per one one centre which will still not suffice. They will need four more years to neuter all the dogs, and by then, dogs will multiply. They need to add one more ABC centre in each ward,” said Harini Raghavan, Animal Birth Control volunteer.
Nandita added, “An awareness programme for the people is necessary. As many do not know about ABC, they get agitated when dogs are picked and think they are being taken away by dog catchers.”
Dr Manjunath Shinde, Assistant Director, BBMP Animal Husbandry, said, “We are planning to set up targets for each zone where they should reach a high number of neutering every month. We will also start mass rabies vaccination.”
Randeep D, Joint Commissioner (SWM,) said, “Yes, we need to start working on the neuter numbers and we will have the ABC centres to work on it. The dog numbers haven’t increased much which is a good thing.”