Around 1,00,000 Stray Dogs occupy streets of Guwahati: GMC

GUWAHATI: In recent years, Guwahati has witnessed a tremendous rise in the stray dog population. This increase has led to an increase in instances of dog bites. While the only way to curb the increasing numbers is regularly carrying out Animal Birth Control (ABC) and Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV) programmes, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has been largely unsuccessful in curbing the problem due to lack of fund and equipment.

Although counting of dogs and finding their exact number is difficult, a GMC official informed G Plus that there are about 1 lakh dogs currently living on the streets of the city. However, officials at a city based animal welfare organization - Just Be Friendly (JBF) - claimed that going by the ratio of 1:40 (the current dog to human ratio in India is pegged at 1: 40, that is, 1 dog for every 40 human beings), Guwahati would have close to 30,000 dogs on the roads.

The JBF had also conducted a sample survey on dog population on head count basis within a radius of 10 square kilometres with the city’s Beltola-Survey area being the focal point. During the survey conducted in 2009, 3,000 dogs were found in Survey area alone.

“Until 1934, there was not a single dog on the streets of Guwahati. But the scenario has changed drastically over the years. Now, dogs can be found in every nook and corner of the city,” Dr Sashanka Sekhar Dutta, Managing Trustee of JBF told G Plus. 

JBF, in association with GMC, the nodal agency for tackling such activities, did start a sterilisation and vaccination drive in Guwahati. JBF has been working on neutering the dogs since 2009. However, the organisation had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in September 2014 to operate on 4,500 stray dogs. The figure was achieved by March 2015.

In the financial year 2015-16, another MoU was signed wherein the GMC agreed to pay Rs 500 per dog to JBF to carry out the surgeries. However today, there’s an outstanding amount of Rs 6.63 lakhs that the JBF is yet to receive from GMC for the surgeries carried out. 

Speaking to G Plus about the non-payment of dues, Veterinary Officer of GMC, Dr Pradip Medhi said, “The state government has sanctioned an amount of Rs 50 lakhs for ABC and ARV programmes to be carried out in collaboration with JBF, but the amount hasn’t been released and there’s a massive fund crunch due to which we’re being unable to pay JBF.”

“At JBF, we have a team of 15 members (including four doctors) who’re capable of doing 25-30 surgeries per day. Without support from the government also we’ve been conducting about 400 surgeries every month. But the numbers and results can increase manifold if we get the necessary support and fund from the government,” Dr Dutta asserted.

Number of dogs that have undergone Animal Birth Control (ABC) and Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV) surgeries by JBF in the last 5 years

Garbage menace: encouraging stray dog population

Open garbage is the single most important reason behind the huge population of stray dogs in the city. Stray dogs are scavengers and rely on garbage on the street as a source of food. In places where garbage is kept in bins and cleaned regularly, stray dogs cannot survive on the streets.

“The unsystematic garbage disposal in Guwahati is a huge problem that is leading to very high breeding rates in dogs.

Dealing with dogs on a daily basis, we see that there are more healthy dogs than unhealthy ones here. This is solely because they get adequate food to eat, courtesy the open garbage,” Dr Dutta said.

He further added that apart from tackling the garbage menace, regular ABC and ARV programs are necessary to slow down the increasing numbers. Under JBF’s Rabies Control Programme, the main initiative is Animal Birth Control (ABC) Operation and Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV) of stray dogs.

As part of the procedure, JBF picks up the animals from different parts of a city and brings them to their centre, operate on them, vaccinate them and give ‘V’-shaped ear notch to each animal for identification and easy recognition. After post-operative care, the animals are released in the same area from where they were picked up.

Benefits of the operation includes reduced aggression in males, reduced urination and territorial marking, reduced wandering, reduced infighting between themselves, prevention of pyometra in female dogs and decreased incidence of mammary tumours. It also reduces human-animal conflict and bite cases.

The increase in dog population of the city has also led to the growth of the illegal dog meat trade. A lot of dog trades have been busted by the Assam police in recent times, but animal lovers in the city claim that they continue to notice dogs from their area being taken away for neutralisation by people claiming to be members of certain NGOs and never returned.

Practice of adopting street dogs trending in city

Until a few years ago, there were very few pet owners in Guwahati but the numbers have been increasing drastically in recent times. Apart from buying foreign breeds as pets, residents of the city have started to adopt the local breeds – while some people just feed the strays in their locality, others take them in as pets and take care of them.
 
Speaking to G Plus on the trend, Founder Vice-President of Purr Paws Rescue Foundation, Nandini Baruva said, “Guwahatians have become more sensitive towards animal welfare. Animal lovers from across the city have been rescuing injured animals, taking care of them and feeding them. They’ve taken to social media to write about animal rights and the need to adopt local breeds, sparking the trend.”

She further added that while animal lovers are playing their part in ensuring fair practices, the non-governmental organisations working towards the cause of animal welfare need to improve their performance levels and get more aggressive in their approach.

“After neutralising and sterilising the dogs, proper post-op care is required – three to five days for male and five to seven days for female. But very often we lose dogs with premature cuts and incisions due to the lack of professionalism by the NGOs operating upon them that fail to provide post-op care,” Baruva said.