Chief Secretary tells GCC to develop action plan for stray animal control

Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena directs Greater Chennai Corporation to develop action plan to control stray animal menace.

Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena has instructed officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to formulate an action plan to control the stray animal menace on the streets of Chennai.

A senior official in the Public Health department of the GCC mentioned that an interdepartmental meeting was held on July 12 at the Secretariat on handling stray dogs and cattle menace in the city. “The Chief Secretary has told the Greater Chennai Corporation to develop an action plan. This will be discussed further after looking into the current scenario, number of cases etc. A state-wide plan has also been requested, but GCC was specifically told to develop its own strategy to augment the activities undertaken as of now.”

According to the official: “There are provisions in the rules of the Chennai Corporation for licensing cattle. But so far, none of the cattle have been licensed and none have newly come forward. So, the procedure must be looked into. The GCC has to check if any guidelines need to be amended or establish new ones regarding this, following which a call will be taken upon.”

Another official stated that, based on the complaints of man-animal conflict, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena instructed that the focus on roaming cattle must be more and capturing must be intensified.

“The Corporation is also looking for spaces, mostly in the suburbs, for impounding cattle. Many parameters need to be checked - surrounding population, area, solid waste management food and security for the animals, health necessities etc., and only after all requirements are met, the locations can be finalised,” the senior official said.

Regarding stray dogs, he said the Animal Birth Control Rules clearly prohibit impounding. “An action plan to curb this issue was also asked to be done. The main challenge is balancing between animal lovers and haters, which will be looked into,” he added.