Srinagar’s Animal Birth Control Program hits roadblock

Srinagar, Apr 6: The Animal Birth Control (ABC) Program of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), the only solution for Srinagar’s massive dog population, has hit the wall with no response to the tenders floated by J&K Government for the work. After a long pause of half a year during winters, the sterilisation was expected to start by March.

The SMC floated tenders with value of Rs 3.56 crores on 15 January this year for the appointment of an agency to carry out work of ABC and Anti-rabies Vaccination program for stray dogs within Srinagar Municipal limits. The tender, with no response, was floated again on 27 January, and twice again since then, the last date of submission of the latest extension date expiring 04 April. An official told Greater Kashmir that there has been poor response to the tender notice. He said the tender has been floated many times, but there are no interested bidders. In the past too, Srinagar has struggled to attract interested agencies for carrying out ABC Program. He said the agency that carried out sterilization in the past year has also not bid for the work.

The poor response, he said, was due to the stringent and complex terms and conditions in the tender document making the work less lucrative for agencies that deal with ABC country-wide. The previous agency that was based in Rajasthan carried out sterilization for the previous two years in Srinagar at the Tengpora facility. As per the SMC, 5087 sterilisations were carried out in 2023 and 6702 dog sterilisations in 2024. The sterilisations process is carried out in warm months of the year and stopped in November due to non-feasibility and risk to animals. However, this year, as expected, the sterilisation did not restart in March as the contract with the previous agency had expired.

The pace of sterilization in Srinagar was already under criticism due to the little impact on the burgeoning dog population here. A veterinarian told Greater Kashmir that dogs have two litters in a year and the sterilization needs to be robust to make a meaningful impact on controlling the population of strays. “In cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai and others, sterilization is carried out round the year and has been successful, but here, our entire system gets suspended for half a year. How is that going to help,” he said.

SMC Commissioner Owais Ahmed did not respond to calls and texts from Greater Kashmir.

ABC program was announced in 2013 in Srinagar but for almost a decade, it failed to move beyond papers. ABC involves sterilizing stray dogs and releasing them back to their original territories and it is the only legal and ethical method for managing the stray dog population. The relocation or euthanasia of dogs is prohibited under the Animal Birth Control Rule of 2023.