Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010961530400.htm

New Delhi

NGO to conduct stray dog census

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: In a bid to check the stray dog menace in the Capital, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to rope in a non-government organisation, Wildlife SOS, to conduct a survey of the stray dogs in the city and assess whether sterilisation of dogs has actually worked.

In addition, the civic body will be setting up a dog centre at Karawal Nagar to sterilise and administer anti-rabies vaccine to stray dogs.

Announcing this at a meeting of the MCD Standing Committee, Municipal Commissioner K. S. Mehra said: “There is no authentic data available on the number of stray dogs in the city. We are therefore roping in SOS to carry out a scientific survey. We will also be able to find out if the sterilization programme has been successful or not.

The NGO will have to get papers signed from the residents’ welfare association of an area after carrying out the census in the area. This will ensure that work in an area has taken place.”

Dissatisfaction

MCD Standing Committee chairman Vijender Gupta and several Councillors expressed dissatisfaction with the civic body’s sterilisation programme that has been in existence since 2003 with no decline being seen in the stray dog population in the city despite the rise in the number of dogs sterilised by the MCD.