Seeing the increase in the number of stray dogs in Noida, the authority's Health Department has decided to sterilise all the stray dogs across the city.

The Health Department will visit different sectors of Noida to catch stray dogs roaming there in order to sterilise them, and after that will release them back to the same place.

As per the Supreme Court guidelines, stray dogs have to be released back to the same place after sterilisation or vaccination.

For this, the Noida Authority is running a campaign, 'Noida's campaign to manage stray dogs.'

"Stray Dogs are being sterilised as per a weekly schedule prepared by our Public Health department across entire Noida," said Noida Authority's CEO Ritu Maheshwari.

"Post-sterilisation the dogs are released in their original natural habitat as mandated by Supreme Court ruling," she added.

Stray Dogs are being sterilised as per a weekly schedule prepared by our Public Health department across entire Noida. Post-sterilisation the dogs are released in their original natural habitat as mandated by Supreme Court ruling.@CMOfficeUP @Secretary_MoHUA @UPGovt pic.twitter.com/Ncaev3rjKm

— CEO, NOIDA Authority #IndiaFightsCorona (@CeoNoida) September 3, 2020

1,119 dogs were sterilised in the month of August.

Why is sterilisation important?

In order to control the population of stray dogs, sterilisation is necessary. Sterilising and vaccinating the dogs who live in our communities effectively and humanely controls their population, prevents rabies in both dogs and humans, and reduces human-dog conflicts.

Sterilisation is a routine surgery that prevents overpopulation. 

Sterilised and rabies-vaccinated dogs who have been returned to where they were found no longer feel a strong instinct to fight with each other, to mate, or to protect their offspring and are less prone to getting into disputes over territory.

This in turn makes them less aggressive. Once all the dogs in a neighbourhood have been sterilised and vaccinated, their population is infertile, non-aggressive, and rabies-free and gradually decreases in size over time.

As per WHO studies, in developing countries, sterilisation is the only scientific method for reducing the stray dog population.

Mass killing or relocation of dogs makes the problem worse. Dogs are territorial animals - if they are removed from a particular area, the vacuum created will cause other dogs to migrate there. 

These new dogs may not be vaccinated or sterilised. Hence, it is better, in the long run, to sterilise all the dogs in the area than to remove them.

In 1993, the policy of mass killing of stray dogs was abandoned because it was found to be a massive failure - not only had the incidence of rabies gone up, the population of stray dogs had also increased.

Since January 1994, sterilisation (animal birth control) is the official government policy for reducing the stray dog population.