
BHUBANESWAR : Eight months after suspending the animal birth control (ABC) programme, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to resume the sterilisation drive from February-end to curb the stray dog menace in the city.
“The process to resume the sterilisation drive has started and will be carried out once an animal welfare organisation is finalised through tender. We are expecting to resume the programme from February-end,” BMC additional commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo said.
In the meantime, Sahoo said BMC has launched a vaccination drive for the stray dogs in different localities of the city to eliminate the risk of rabies in cases involving dog bite.
Stray dog menace continues to remain a major civic concern in the city with more and more people being attacked by the canines on a regular basis. In the absence of a comprehensive sterilisation drive there has been a huge surge in the stray dog population in the state capital.
BMC sources said the city at present has more than 50,000 stray dogs and a mass sterilisation is needed to bring their population under control. The civic body had started the sterilisation drive at its canine shelter in Mancheswar after the high court lifted the stay in January last year. But it was suspended following allegations of violation of Centre’s new Animal Birth Control Rules-2023.
BMC officials, however, said this time they have mandated at least 2,000 surgeries and two welfare activities with any government body or PSU, a mandatory criteria for selection of the agency for the drive. “The agency will have to perform sterilisation of minimum 500 dogs per month. A monitoring committee will oversee the drive to ensure it is carried out as per standard operating procedure (SoP),” an official from BMC animal welfare wing said.
Moreover, the BMC has also decided that before the street dogs are captured in any locality, the representative of the local authority or the animal welfare organisation will put public notice making announcement that the dogs captured for the ABC drive will be released in the same area after their sterilisation and immunisation. BMC is planning to spend around `1,650 per dog for the sterilisation drive.