BENGALURU: As Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) sends injured animals, abandoned pets, and those in need of care to private rescue centres, the civic body is now setting up its own centre at Dasarahalli. Also, steps are being taken to set up two more such centres—in Bengaluru East and South.
This has been a long-pending demand of animal welfare activists.
BBMP is aiming to handle 200 animals in each centre and in total wants to host more than 500 animals each month in these three centres.
“BBMP does not have its own animal rescue centre. Whenever the animal husbandry department gets a call for animal rescue or requests to take care of abandoned and injured pets, we send them to private rescue centres, and the animals are taken care of and treated there. Once they are fine, they are let back to the same place from where they were picked,” BBMP Special Commissioner of Health and Animal Husbandry Suralkar Vikas told The New Indian Express.
“On a daily basis, we get requests across the city for animal rescue. We get calls related to stray dog accidents and cat injuries, etc. People dial BBMP when they see abandoned pets. We coordinate with private rescue centres and attend to the requests,” a BBMP official said. He said, as of now, BBMP will set up three, and based on the response, the civic body may expand it in all eight zones.
The tender process is over, and work has commenced to set up an animal welfare centre at Dasarahalli, Suralkar said.