According to various studies, 90% should be sterilised in the first year, for the programme to be successful over time, says Dr Vanak. This was a steep increase compared to the 2013 census numbers of 1.85 lakh, indicating that ABC didn’t reduce dog numbers over time.īesides, only 51% of dogs identified in the 2019 census had undergone ABC. According to him, BBMP should conduct rigorous surveys annually to estimate stray dog numbers and the proportion that’s sterilised (which can be identified by their clipped ears).īBMP’s last stray dog survey was in 2019, which showed 3.09 lakh stray dogs. Though BBMP started its ABC programme way back in 2007, dog bite and rabies cases persist.īengaluru-based animal ecologist Dr Abi T Vanak says it’s difficult to assess the success of ABC and the recently-introduced dedicated anti-rabies vaccination programme (ARV) without baseline data on the dog numbers. Under the programme, dogs are picked up, sterilised, vaccinated and released back on the streets. This too excludes many private hospital patients.Īnimal Birth Control (ABC) Rules were introduced in India in 2001 as a humane solution to reduce the dog population and combat rabies. In 2021-22, 17,610 people in Bengaluru were bitten by dogs, including strays and pets. The number of reported dog bites and attacks is way higher. The rabies numbers for the whole city are hard to track as private hospitals often don’t report cases to the government. The victims were from different age groups and genders, the youngest being 11-year-old Likhith Yadav. In 2022, six rabies deaths within the BBMP limits were recorded at the government’s Epidemic Diseases Hospital alone. BBMP has been scaling up its programmes, but there is a long way to go. While India has a national action plan to eliminate rabies by 2030, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) aims to achieve it sooner, by 2025.
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