MCH SET TO PUT A LEASH ON STRAY DOGS

The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) has a serious problem on its hands: The swelling dog population. And the recent attack on a six-month-old boy has stepped up pressure on it to tackle the menace. As a first step, the MCH has now decided to adopt the Ahmedabad model to control the stray dog menace in the city. An NGO 'Animal Help Foundation', which is currently handling a project in Ahmedabad city, will take up a pilot project for a sterilisation and vaccination programme in the city too. The pilot project will be taken up in the Old City (circle I) from April 7, MCH commissioner Sanjay Jaju told reporters at a press conference on Friday. Under this programme, camps will be conducted in different localities of the city and dog catchers would pick up dogs to be sterilised the same day. By evening the dogs will be back in the same locality, Jaju said. The results of the programme have been quite encouraging in Ahmedabad and Bangalore has also recently adopted the method after a boy was mauled by stray dogs a month ago. "Of the total 1.5 lakh stray dogs population in the city, the MCH could sterilise about 15,000 dogs a year. The number of dogs are increasing despite certain measures by the MCH," the commissioner said. The corporation would spend Rs 200 on each dog under this scheme and about Rs 12 lakh on the pilot project. "If the pilot project yields good results in circle-I areas, the project would be extended to other areas also, Sanjay Jaju said. The commissioner, however, said the MCH dog catchers and Blue Cross would continue their regular programmes of sterilisation and vaccination programmes other than the pilot project area. Animal Help Foundation convenor Rahul Sehgal said the organisation sterilised about 45,000 dogs in 2006 in Ahmedabad alone.