Loose electric wires, shoddy facilities and overcrowded: Noida’s lone animal shelter

Noida: The lone shelter for stray, injured, abused and sick animals in Noida can be described in two words, rundown and overcrowded. Run by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA), till June 2017, it has now been taken over by the Noida Authority on the directions of the Gautam Budh Nagar District Magistrate. Situated in sector 94 of the city, the 24x7 shelter currently houses about 1,000 animals including stray dogs, monkeys, cows, calves, donkeys, horses, buffalo and pigeons.

Volunteers who continue to provide their services at the shelter allege that wounded and abandoned strays are being turned away by Noida Authority employees. They further allege that employees seem to be trying to paralyse the operations of the shelter by procuring substandard food and medicines for its inmates besides holding back salaries of 55 staff members for the last two months. A ploy they suspect could be to grab the land, which is located in a prime area of the city.

A visit to the shelter in Noida, which is considered as the largest animal rescue facility in East NCR reveals a crumbling infrastructure, caved-in floors, peeling tiles, incomplete electricity connections, hanging wires with dysfunctional electrical appliances including fans, lights and more. A pathetic sewage system has led to overflowing drains and an unbearable stench which has become worse after combining with the smell of wounds of more than 200 dogs infested with maggots.

When quizzed about the dilapidated condition of the shelter, Noida Authority officials inform that the former CEO Amit Mohan Prasad had directed the shelter be revamped into a state-of-art facility. "We will soon initiate tenders for this project and carry out the revamp," RK Mishra, Additional CEO, Noida Authority told TOI.