Ahmedabad: As the city gears up to host major events with VVIP presence, AMC has a four-legged problem — stray dogs. It has floated a tender for removing strays from places of high-profile events, housing them in its pounds and releasing them at the same spot once the events wind up. This scope of work is part of the tender AMC’s cattle nuisance control department floated on July 29 this year to catch sick stray dogs and place them at its shelters for care and recovery before releasing them.An AMC official said, “Going forward, all event venues and roads with VVIP movement will be cleared of stray dogs. A team of two dog catchers with a vehicle will be deployed for this purpose. The base price for this task has been set at Rs 30 lakh annually. The deadline to submit bids is Aug 10.” The official added that an annual rate contract will be established, requiring the contractor to deploy teams during VVIP events, with each team paid Rs 8,000 per eight-hour shift.AMC says it has sterilised and vaccinated 1.98 lakh stray dogs between 2019-20 and 2026-27 for a total of Rs 19.11 crore. A random survey in 2019 estimated the stray dog population in Ahmedabad to be 2.10 lakh. Civic officials say the drive has controlled the dog population to a large extent. Currently, the civic body is conducting a census to collect location-based data on unsterilised dogs to formulate short- and long-term plans to make Ahmedabad a rabies-free city by 2030.AMC data also shows that there has been a 20.8% rise in dog bite cases from Jan-March 2025 to the same period this year. Cases of cat bites registered during the period saw a 155.7% rise, while monkey bites saw a 44.7% jump. Jan 2025 recorded 7,453 dog bite cases; the figure was 8,354 in Jan 2026. Overall, 20,115 dog bite cases were recorded from Jan to March 2025, compared to 24,203 cases during the same period in 2026.
