Dogs unwilling, Palike junks face skin sensors' census

The BBMP will soon conduct the stray dogs census in the city for a better understanding of the threat.

The civic body has tied up with the international voluntary group Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS) to hold the census in a month.

A 50-member group made of BBMP officials, volunteers and members of animal welfare organisations are being trained for the census.

The BBMP abandoned its earlier plan to hold the census through the face and skin recognition method and has instead opted to go with the WVS which has exclusive software for the census.

The dog census will consider four categories: male, female, nurtured and non-nurtured. Volunteers and officials will generate the census data in each ward using the software. BBMP said the data will be compiled with photographs taken during the census. Once organised, the data will be shared with the animal husbandry department and Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres based on a category specified in the census.

Dr Shashikumar, Deputy director of the BBMP’s animal husbandry department, said: “We’re training officials for the census and the actual work will start in a month. We earlier wanted to conduct census based on face and skin recognition, but had to scrap the plans because stray dogs won’t cooperate. WVS would conduct the census for free,” he said.

The face and skin recognition census would have cost the BBMP Rs 50 lakh per zone and Rs 4 crore in total. The 2012 dog census identified 1.85 lakh strays in the city.