250-capacity shelter vs 84k strays: KMC faces uphill task after SC order
Times of India | 9 November 2025
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which has a dog pound that can take in 250 animals. After the SC order, it is now bracing for handling a situation in a city that has an estimated canine population of 84,000.
Worse, out of a sanctioned 19 posts, the civic body's dog-catching wing has only nine catchers. This is not the only hurdle that this wing is facing. Among half a dozen dog-catching vans, 50% are lying idle due to technical snags.
"It is an uphill task to catch strays from public places across the city's 144 wards with only nine catchers. This apart, we don't have sufficient vans, which is a major challenge for such a massive job," said a KMC official.
Due to the lack of infrastructure, a time-bound vaccination and sterilisation project for the city's stray dog population, which was launched amid much fanfare in March 2022, is in deep trouble. After more than two-and-a-half years, not more than 10% of the targeted population has been sterilized, conceded a KMC official.
The state sanctioned Rs 86 lakh for this special project in 2022 and set a one-year deadline for the KMC health department.
According to a department official, after a formal inauguration of the special project, the work of vaccination and sterilisation proceeded at a snail's pace. While the KMC health department workers were supposed to bring all 84,000 strays under the vaccination project, they needed to sterilise 60% of the total dog population.
According to a KMC official associated with the vaccination-and-sterilisation project, the time-bound mission has become a non-starter due to lack of infrastructure and manpower.
Also, a mismatch of borough-wise records of strays is proving to be an obstacle, said a civic official. The official said borough-wise officials will be asked to extend a helping hand to expedite the project.
"Vaccination and sterilisation of stray dogs across the length and breadth of the city is a massive task. If we want to implement the project successfully, we need to upgrade the infrastructure of the Dhapa dog pound immediately. Inundation of the dog pound has been a major problem. If the problem is not tackled immediately, it is extremely difficult to take care of the strays," the civic official said. The Dhapa dog pound has a capacity to keep 250 dogs for vaccination and sterilisation.
It is the only government-run shelter for the strays, where the dogs are sterilised, vaccinated and treated for injuries.