Stray Dog Menace: 13 Gujarat Districts Without ABC Centres

Ahmedabad: 13 of 34 districts in Gujarat do not have Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres, while data on stray dog sterilisation and vaccination has been submitted for only 17 districts, the Gujarat High Court was informed on Wednesday.

The High Court is hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) on the stray dog issue following Supreme Court directions to monitor compliance with its directives aimed at addressing the stray dog menace.

During the hearing, senior advocate Megha Jani, appointed as amicus curiae in the case, highlighted gaps in the information submitted through the state government’s affidavit. She pointed out that 13 districts lack ABC centres, while 12 districts have only one such facility each. Proposals have been made to establish an additional centre in each of these 12 districts.

Jani stressed that establishing ABC centres was the “first requirement” for initiating systematic measures to control the stray dog population.

She also flagged the limited coverage of data on sterilisation and vaccination, noting that information had been provided for only 17 districts. The Supreme Court has directed that every district must have at least one ABC centre.

Responding to the concerns, government pleader GH Virk said that although ABC facilities were not available in every district, larger centres were catering to the needs of neighbouring districts. He added that efforts were underway to establish facilities across all districts.

Providing details of measures to make institutional premises free of stray dogs, the state government informed the court that 79,150 institutions had been inspected and 754 stray dogs removed. It also stated that 7,130 institutional premises had been cleared of stray dogs.

During the proceedings, a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice MR Pathak and Justice Nirzar Desai suggested that the government maintain a buffer stock of anti-rabies vaccines in every district. DeshGujarat