CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has given the street dog census that was due this year a miss. However, the officials said they plan on conducting an enumeration of stray dogs during the rabies vaccination drive to be conducted in January.
The GCC had planned to conduct the census every four years when it started it in 2018, at which time street dog numbers stood at 57,336. Regular enumeration is essential to understand how effective the civic body’s animal birth control methods have been over the years. According to corporation officials, the number is estimated to be around 90,000 this year, at a 10% increase projection annually.
However, in the absence of an actual enumeration since 2018 and with no birth control surgeries done for the larger part of 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdown, there is no actual way of knowing the population of street dogs.
“Apart from the enumeration telling us whether the birth control measures have worked, it also helps in giving us an idea of what the budgetary allocation for sterilisation should be. The birth control methods should be carried out scientifically and the capacity of the animal birth control centres should be increased accordingly. Without a census or regular enumeration this is not possible,” said a city-based activist.
In Coimbatore, for instance, the city municipal corporation and Vajra Foundation through its ‘Dogs of Coimbatore’ initiative conducted a detailed app-based survey this year and the reports for the east zone have been released to the public while the reports for the remaining zones are to follow shortly.
The survey estimated the size and distribution of the free-roaming dog population and recorded parameters to assess changes in demographics, neuter coverage, dog abundance and population size over time. Based on these parameters, it made a series of recommendations to the corporation in terms of its sterilisation drive and budgetary allocation.
“The team that had about 20-25 volunteers were able to cover 20 wards in the east zone in around two weeks. We have completed the other zones too and we plan to release the reports soon,” said Kesica Jayapalan, founder and managing trustee of Vajra.