BMC seeks land for stray dog shelters to comply with Supreme Court directives

Bhubaneswar: To expedite compliance with the Supreme Court order to rehabilitate stray dogs in permanent shelters, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Tuesday wrote to the Khurda collector to provide a patch of land on the city outskirts for the purpose.

Besides sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination, rehabilitation of dogs is also important, as per the SC directive, BMC officials said.




“We wrote to the Khurda collector to provide us land to house street dogs. They are expected to begin looking for the land soon along with BMC teams. Once finalised, we will develop the shelters as quickly as possible,” said BMC additional commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo.

He said, on a temporary basis, the two kennels at Saheed Nagar and Mancheswar will be used for the purpose. “Khurda administration allotted us land for creating a burial ground for burying carcasses of stray animals, including dogs,” Sahoo added.

Stray dogs found near institutions and places like bus stands, hospitals, airports, railway stations, schools, colleges, and govt and private offices under BMC limits will be caught and brought to shelters, as per the SC direction.

BMC officials said they are looking for land to develop three varieties of shelters: one for 100 dogs, another for 500, and the third for 1,000, as per the SC guidelines. “The dogs will be housed in shelters until their natural death. They will be provided food and treatment,” said a BMC officer.

Currently, the Saheed Nagar kennel is undergoing renovation, and after completion of work, sterilisation of 20 more dogs on a given day can be taken up in addition to 20 now, BMC officials said.

For the anti-rabies mass vaccination, all formalities were completed to start the process from March first week, they said.