Srinagar, June 22: In a bid to check stray dog menace in the summer capital, authorities are setting up three more canine sterilization centres.
Officials said that earlier authorities had floated the tenders to outsource the whole sterilization program, however, it did not materialize.
“We had chalked out the plan and floated the tender at the national level. However, we got a very poor response from the expert agencies. I think it was mainly because they didn’t want to do everything from scratch by themselves like setting up infrastructure,” said an official.
Officials said that now the department is going to set up new sterilization centers for the canine population all by themselves. The officials said that currently, the infrastructure that is available for sterilization is at minimum capacity. The SMC’s lone center at Shuhama is able to carry out sterilization of around 15 dogs per day which experts say is negligible as compared to the growing population of dogs in the city.
SMC, Veterinary officer, Dr. Javaid Ahmed told Grater Kashmir that the department is going to add three more dog sterilization facilities.
“After the completion of the project, we will have four sterilization facilities including Shuhama. We will be able to carry out around 240 sterilization surgeries per day. We have got the technical approval and financial approval to carry out the project. We have also finalized the DPR and tenders which are to be floated soon. Among three new facilities, one will be at Tengpora, another will be added to the Shuhama facility and for the third facility land has been identified,” Javaid said.
The officials said that they are aiming to sterilize 75 percent of the dog population in Kashmir so that the population can be stabilized within five to six months. In the past few months in addition to growing dog attacks, the death of an 8-year-old child in Pulwama after dog attack bought the limelight back to management of menace by the authorities.
As per a report by the department of Community Medicines, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, around 58,869 persons were bitten by the dogs in the last ten years in Kashmir. In the last five years, 30,000 dog bite cases have been reported in Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS) alone. While topping the list in 2020 more than 2,800 cases of dog bites were reported in Srinagar only.