The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has put in place a structured framework to adhere to Supreme Court directives regarding the management of stray dogs in public areas. This initiative focuses on locations like educational institutions, health facilities, sports complexes, bus stations, and railway stations. Under this framework, around 1,050 sites falling into these categories have been identified and surveyed.
Cattle Nuisance Control Department’s Head of Department, Naresh Rajput, mentioned that these locations, as per the Supreme Court’s classification, necessitate preventive measures for managing stray dogs. The directives require institutions to prevent stray dog entry through various means like fencing, strengthening boundaries, controlled waste disposal, and appointing nodal officers for monitoring.
Each institution has been assigned a nodal officer responsible for ensuring that stray dogs do not enter the premises and that food waste is managed properly to avoid attracting strays. Rajput emphasized the importance of securing boundary walls to prevent dogs from entering and ensuring that security guards are aware and sensitized.
Institutions have also been instructed to maintain proper waste disposal systems and refrain from open food dumping, which can lead to the congregation of stray dogs. Regular inspections are carried out by AMC officials to verify the presence of sterilized and unsterilized dogs within these campuses.
The survey revealed that there are approximately 5,000 to 5,500 stray dogs spread across the identified campuses. The AMC clarified that this institutional dog population is part of the larger urban stray dog population estimated at over two lakh dogs in the city, as per surveys conducted in 2019.
