98,000 strays have been sterilised since ’05: BMC

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 . Times City . Page 12

Mumbai: The verdict is still not out on their latest population figures, but the BMC claims that non-governmental organisations appointed by them have been able to sterilise a whopping 98,000 stray dogs in the entire city since 2005.

In a reply to an RTI query, BMC officials say, “As many as eight NGOs have been roped in to sterilise stray dogs. We have paid nearly Rs 4 crore so far for sterilisation to control their population. The query was filed by Sunish Subramanian of Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS).’’ According to BMC figures, sterilisation of stray dogs has seen a steady progress since a few years. The RTI reply says that in 2008, 33,021 sterilisations were conducted, a quantum leap from just 12,925 in 2007.

For 2009, the figures may turn out to be even better, since NGOs managed to sterilise nearly 31,437 dogs till October 2009 and the BMC compiles these figures according to the financial year ending March 31.

However, Subramanian has raised doubts over the effective implementation of this programme. The monitoring committee formed by the BMC to evaluate the Animal Birth Control Programme comprises members from NGOs involved with sterilisation. Apart from NGOs directly involved with this initiative, the committee should also have members from other NGOs to make the system more transparent. “This is the least we can do to justify the spending of tax-payers’ money on such an important programme.’’ Girish Ambe, executive health officer, BMC, said, “We have been able to sterilise nearly 80% of stray dogs. I think we are on the right track and hence have dropped plans to construct a dog shelter, which would have cost us nearly Rs 10 crore.’’

Interestingly, a survey of stray dogs carried out by the BMC in 2007 had pegged their population in Mumbai at 74,761.