Ahmedabad:
Ahmedabad is certainly going to the dogs! There is one stray dog for every 24 to 30 Amdavadis if estimated figures of the first ever dog census and city's population at 60 lakh are to be believed.
According to reliable sources, the dog census conducted by the Humane Society International (HSI) - a rigorous exercise that took three months - revealed that there are an estimated 2 lakh to 2.5 lakh dogs in the 64 wards of Ahmedabad, spread over 466 square km area. Officials at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), however, refused to comment on this revealing statistic and said that they are yet to get a final figure from the HSI.
It was only after the uproar created by animal activist Lisa Warden's alleged move to confiscate iron tongs from the AMC's cattle nuisance and control department (CNCD) in Danapith, that the AMC took steps to conduct the dog census and also signed an MoU with the Animal Welfare Board of India to carry out the animal birth control programme through dog sterilization and vaccination.
When DNA called up HSI officials in Ahmedabad, they also refused to share figures on the dog census. The HSI, which was assigned the work of conducting the census in August, was to submit the final estimation by October 2010. The organisation is now expected to give the final figure of dog population in Ahmedabad on Monday, said AMC officials.
The HSI completed the dog census using three techniques after choosing 16 wards to conduct sample surveys to get the dog population. First, organisation members ferried about ward streets on motorcycles and noted stray dog population with specifics like male-female dogs, stray dog etc. In the second way, the members used GPS system to register number of dogs in street - known as capture, mark and recapture technique. In the third and final exercise, the data gathered was compared with the previous records of the dog population in Ahmedabad.
Experts say that the estimated figure could vary by 8% (up or down) than the actual number of dogs in the city. If AMC had included Bopal in the census, the figure would have gone up. Usually, dog census is conducted using two yardsticks: number of dogs per every 100 human beings and dog population per every kilometre.
Meanwhile, the AMC standing committee meeting also rocked as Congress member Surendra Baxi raised the issue of increasing dog population in Ahmedabad. "On November 29, there were 217 cases of dog bites. During the past one week, around 843 cases of dog bites have been registered in the city. Bigger cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi do not have as much a dog problem as Ahmedabad. The AMC bosses should wake up and take action against the increasing population of dogs," said Baxi.
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