Bengaluru to double annual stray dog sterilisation capacity to 90,000

On Tuesday, Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda announced that the government has decided to double the city's annual stray dog sterilisation capacity from 45,000 to 90,000 dogs. The initiative aims to achieve 100 percent animal birth control coverage across the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority to mitigate the ongoing stray dog menace.

During a meeting held on Tuesday, Minister Gowda directed officials from the animal husbandry department to prepare a comprehensive action plan. This plan will outline the steps required to ensure full animal birth control coverage across the city within the next three years.

Speaking to reporters, Gowda highlighted that although birth control measures have been implemented for more than two decades, Bengaluru continues to face a serious stray dog menace. He noted that the stray dog population remains high despite long-term efforts.

To address this issue, the government has committed to increasing the scale of the sterilisation programme. Currently, an average of 45,000 stray dogs are sterilised in the city every year. Under the new directive, this target will be doubled to 90,000 dogs annually in order to accelerate the city's birth control coverage and manage the population more effectively.

The minister also shared details regarding the financial expenditure incurred for these measures, noting that the city had spent Rs 42 crore over the past five years alone on dog sterilisation.

Furthermore, official records show that approximately 8.8 lakh dogs have undergone sterilisation since 2007. Despite these numbers, Gowda emphasized that the population of stray dogs in the city has not reduced sufficiently, prompting the need for a doubled annual capacity and a more structured action plan. The animal husbandry department will now be responsible for executing this expanded sterilisation drive across the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority to achieve the three-year target.