CHANDIGARH, JUNE 17
Haryana will be the first state in the country to be “Rabies Free” after the implementation of animal component of National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) and this program would be launched from Gurgaon.
This was revealed by Chairman of Animal Welfare Board of India Maj Gen (Dr) R. M. Kharab (Retd), who was in a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, Mr T. L. Satyaprakash in Gurgaon today. They discussed the issue of vaccination of dogs and how to curtail the number of stray dogs in Gurgaon. Mr Satyaprakash welcomed the decision to launch the program from Gurgaon and assured full support of district administration to the Animal Welfare Board in implementation of this program. A UK based NGO namely ‘Worldwide Veterinary Services (India)’ (WVS) and Humane Society International (HIS) (India) have been selected by the Government of India for implementation of Animal Component of the NRCP under Five Year Plan.
The HIS has provided the detailed census of dogs in Haryana. According to the survey, the total number of dogs in the state is over 25.36 lakh including both street dogs and owned dogs. These included the number of stray street dogs as roughly 935,480 whereas the number of owned street dogs is 942,723, number of owned and confined dogs is 658,226. Therefore, the number of total street dogs is roughly 1,878,203 and that of confined dogs is 658,226. Accordingly, there are about 10 dogs per 100 people in the State of Haryana which is much higher than other parts of India where there are three to four dogs per 100 people.
As per the survey of HIS, there are about 61,300 stray dogs in Gurgaon city and owned dogs are 17,520. Total street dogs in Gurgaon Division are estimated to be 5.47 lakh and in Gurgaon District, these are estimated to be 1.24 lakh. Maj Gen Kharab said that the animal component of the NRCP will be implemented as a pilot study only in Haryana.
Sikkim was initially identified by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for implementation of the animal component of NRCP. However, on intervention of Chairman AWBI Maj Gen R. M. Kharab, the programme was shifted to Haryana state as 60 per cent of street dogs in Sikkim have already been vaccinated and sterilized.
Maj Gen Kharab said that mass sterilization of street dogs is extremely important along with Mass Anti-Rabies immunization as dogs are prolific breeders and unless their population is also controlled through a humane sterilization programme, a new crop of pups will be added twice a year which would adversely affect the success of Rabies Control Program if carried out in isolation with Mass Anti Rabies Immunization only. As per WHO estimates 17 to 20,000 people die from Rabies every year in India. The animal component of NRCP in Haryana is proposed to be started from Hisar and Gurgaon Divisions. The HIS (India) would start the program from Hisar while WVS India will start the program in Gurgaon Division. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initially identified a sum of Rs 30 crore for implementation of animal component in Haryana State for mass vaccination and sterilization. A sum of Rs 100 will be paid for catching, marking and anti rabies vaccination and Rs 700 for surgical sterilization of each dog (both male and female).
He said that for successful implementation of this programme, the Department of Animal Husbandry is required to provide infrastructure help of their Veterinary Hospitals for establishing street dog sterilization centers and assistance of Paravets and 10 vehicles suitable as mobile operation theatres.
In today’s meeting a presentation was also made, showing that the stray dogs would be watched through GPS system in which the sterilized dogs would be seen in green color while the unsterilized dogs would be seen in red color.
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