BENGALURU: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday launched a pilot project — Kukur Tihar (festival of dogs) — to provide food to strays. Under the pilot project, the civic body has identified eight ‘feeding spots’ in each of its eight zones. If it is successful, the project will be scaled up across the city.
BBMP Special Commissioner (Health) Suralkar Vikas, who inaugurated the project, said, “Stray dogs are often viewed with fear due to the concern that they may bite and attack. This festival is to do away with this fear. There are over 2.7 lakh strays in Bengaluru.
After discussions with animal welfare volunteers, veterinarians and experts, we found that one of the major reasons for dog bites and aggression is that they lack food.”
He said the project is part of the BBMP’s One Health initiative under which pourakarmikas, health officials, animal lovers, pet owners and interested citizens will collect leftover food from hotels and restaurants and feed it to stray dogs at designated feeding spots.
Vikas said the primary goal is to provide food to dogs regularly, and they aim to distribute food once a day. He said hoteliers have agreed to provide healthy, non-spicy, oil-free food for the dogs.
“The feeding spots will have food, water bowls and a signboard indicating that it is a feeding station. The pilot project will be monitored for a month, and based on feedback, the feeding location, timings and other shortcomings will be addressed before scaling up the project for the entire city.”