Hyderabad: Even as the stray dog menace continues to cause inconvenience to residents, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) veterinary wing carried out 57,921 sterilizations and Anti-Rabies vaccination to street dogs in the year 2019.
This apart, the civic body has issued 3,416 pet dog licences during the year. Laying emphasis on addressing street dog menace, GHMC launched new Animal Care Centers at Fathullaguda (LB Nagar zone), Chudibazar (Charminar zone) and KPHB colony (Kukatpally zone). Also, the construction of a new Animal Care Center at Gajularamaram (Kukatpally Zone) is close to completion. After stray dog menace, the next big nuisance is monkey menace for the residents with complaints made regularly to the civic body from different colonies of the city.
Last year, the municipal corporation had caught 344 monkeys from across the city and released them into deep forests. Since the monkeys are protected species, permission of the Forest Department is mandatory for their catching and releasing in the specified forest areas.
The job of catching, housing, feeding and releasing the monkeys in forests is leased out to private agencies at the zonal level.
Clearing carcasses
Clearing the carcasses of dead animals and disposal has been a challenge to the municipal corporation. Presently, all the dead animals in the GHMC limits are brought to the Carcass Utilization Center at Autonagar and disposed off by deep burial method to prevent pollution and spread of communicable diseases.
“The work of lifting dead animals and their safe disposal at Autonagar was assigned to agencies at zonal level,” said GHMC Chief Veterinary Officer, Venkateshwar Reddy.
Further, efforts are on to construct animal crematoriums at Jawahar Nagar (Kapra circle), Gajularamaram (Kukatpally circle) and Fathullaguda (L.B. Nagar circle) and tenders have already been floated to execute the project, he said.
Stray cattle, pigs
Cattle menace is another nuisance for residents which also ends up affecting traffic movement in different areas of the city. The stray cattle found roaming on the roads and dairy cattle causing nuisance and sanitation problems are caught by the cattle catching units. They are put in the cattle pound and released after imposing fines on the owners.
During the year, the veterinary wing personnel caught 677 stray/ dairy cattle and imposed a fine of Rs13,23,317 on the owners. Similarly, as part of addressing pig menace issue in the city, 957 pigs were caught in different areas during the year.
Rendering plant commences operations
The country’s first dry rendering plant at Chengicherla became operational aiding in scientific disposal of animal waste in the city.
Rendering is a process that converts animal waste tissue into stable and usable materials and the GHMC has constructed the plant at a cost of Rs19.17 crore that included central government assistance of Rs 6.86 crore.
Spread over 2.86 acres, the plant is powered to convert 80 MTs of waste a day and the animal waste generated from slaughter houses at Amberpet, New Bhoiguda and Ramnaspur apart from chicken and mutton shops is sent here.
The animal waste is processed and converted into by-products and used as feed in aquaculture and poultry farm, besides soap manufacturing units, industries and in lubricants.
Focusing on controlling illegal slaughter of animals and ensuring hygienic and wholesome meat is sold by retail traders, the veterinary department, conducted raids and took up their prosecution.
Accordingly, during the year, 2,154 retail meat traders were prosecuted and 2,715 kg meat and 8328 kg of beef was confiscated, besides penalties imposed through the court.