Ahmedabad's first dog census to begin from Bodakdev

What will you do if a dog is sitting on the border diving two wards? Will you take it as being under the population of ward A or ward B? What if a dog runs away to another ward when you are counting stray dogs in a street? What if a dog enters ward A from ward B, when you are counting the number of dogs in ward A? These are just some of the questions that dog census workers put before eight members working at the behest of the Humane Society International (HSI). They were in the middle of a training session where they were preparing to undertake Ahmedabad's first-ever dog census. HSI is the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)'s partner in the dog census, to be carried out for getting an estimate of the dog population in the state. This process will be followed by Animal Birth Control (ABC) through sterilisation and vaccination programmes. If everything goes as per the AMC and HSI's plans, Ahmedabad will have random figures of its dog population within eight weeks of the commencement of the dog census - estimated to happen around mid-October. Interestingly, the dog census - earlier planned to be conducted across whole streets - will now be conducted in sample areas of 16 out of the total 64 wards in AMC limits. Bopal, which is very much a part of the city, will however not be considered, as the civic body intends to skip the area for the census. HSI India director Rahul Sehgal said that in choosing people for the dog counting process, they have chosen people from various professions and not from animal welfare organisations alone. "We will kick start the dog census from the Bodakdev ward, which offers a mix of urban and rural characteristics and low and high density," Sehgal said. The technical advisor to the HSI for the dog census is Dr Jack Reece, a veterinarian from the UK currently settled in Jaipur. Dr Reece said that the dog census will be conducted in the city in the morning hours - from 6 am to 9 am, so that most dogs can be spotted in the street. "In some parts of the world, dog census is conducted at night but here, we do not know how chaukidars will react if our team moves on motorbikes in the streets to count dogs after midnight. Also, dogs might be sleeping in dark spots at night and the team might miss them," he said.Dr Reece said, four teams of two people each will simultaneously start the dog census in each ward. The HSI has divided each ward into four parts. "While moving up and down in the street, the team will note the number of dogs, whether they are male or female, and whether they have been covered under the vaccination and sterilisation programme earlier, etc. The teams will count the number of dogs in the street more than once, to be doubly sure," he said.