Coimbatore Corporation to identify space to build dog shelters as part of plan to remove dogs from public spaces

The Coimbatore Corporation has planned to survey the dog population and identify space within the city to build shelters, following the recent Supreme Court direction to remove stray dogs from public spaces such as hospitals, bus stands, railway stations, educational institutions, and sports complexes.

On 7 November, the Supreme Court directed all States and Union Territories to “forthwith” remove stray dogs from the premises of public institutions and relocate them to designated shelters after sterilisation and vaccination under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. The court placed the responsibility on local bodies and asked them to submit compliance reports within eight weeks.

Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner M. Sivaguru Prabakaran said the Tamil Nadu government had issued directions to all urban local bodies to identify locations for shelters and conduct dog population surveys.

“The space for shelters will be identified in a manner that does not cause disturbance to the general public. Since the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is under way, we are unable to carry out the survey in full swing. Otherwise, we would have the exact number of dogs and the extent of public spaces involved,” he said. As per the last survey, there are about 1.11 lakh street dogs in the city.

He said that once the survey is completed, the Corporation will work with NGOs and use its own funds to operate the shelters and manage and vaccinate the dogs relocated from public spaces. He added that there are also plans to expand the ABC centres capacity in the city, and preliminary works have been initiated.