The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has dropped its plan to set up a dedicated stray dog shelter in Palghar after facing local opposition. The civic body has now decided to establish a new shelter in the Malvani area of Malad, for which around 7 acres of land has been identified.
The BMC has issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) inviting proposals from interested NGOs for the project. Officials also said that the civic body is open to collaborating with organisations that already run dog shelters.
Meanwhile, the BMC’s standing committee has approved a fund of INR 23.30 crore for the sterilisation of 1,34,940 stray dogs over the next three years as part of efforts to control the stray dog population.
Officials said that, as per Supreme Court guidelines, such shelters must be set up within the same district, which is why the Malvani location has been finalised. Earlier, around 25 acres of land had been reserved in Wada in Palghar district, but no significant progress was made even after nine years, with even land acquisition not completed, according to committee members.
According to the 2024 civic report, Mumbai currently has around 90,757 stray dogs, a 21.8% decline compared to 2014. Of these, 62.9% have been sterilised, but 33,671 dogs remain unsterilised, including 11,224 female dogs.
The BMC estimates that if each female dog gives birth to an average of four puppies annually, the stray dog population could rise to 4.48 lakh by 2033. Therefore, officials say that both shelter construction and sterilisation drives are crucial to control the situation.
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