Why Ratan Tata is backing this engineer's idea of keeping Mumbai's strays safe from motorists

While stories about road accidents make headlines every day not much is written about animals especially street dogs who suffer ill fate Shantanu Naidu a 24yearold engineer from Pune has been working hard to raise awareness on strays safety by manufacturing a special dog collarA volunteer with a stray wearing the reflective collar Social media helped NGO Motopaws generate interest and raise awareness about the initiativeNaidu who is a design engineer for Tata Elxsi in Pune and works on automotive parts has been working on the rescue of strays rehabilitation of abandoned dogs and other animal welfare services through Touch Heart that he set up in 2011 ldquoFrom the information that I got from volunteers over the years it emerged that 90 of accidents happen due to visibility issues and 10 if the dogs suddenly appears before the motorist without warningrdquo says Naidu who based on his research formed project Motopaws to save dogs from vehiclesRatan Tata with volunteers of project MotopawsNext up Naidu began working on the design of a collar with the help of Mrinmayi Dalvi a Masters student in Wildlife Conservation and Action at Bharati Vidyapeeth University that would help increase the visibility of the dogs At first he used the reflective tape used on the back of vehicles to make collars but they didnrsquot work as the tapes are meant for flat surfaces Then Naidu came across Retro Reflective Fabric an expensive industrial grade fabric used to make security jackets for various workforces and for riding gear for motorcyclists Naidu needed a base for the fabric to make a comfortable collarA batch of reflective collars made from denim and orange mesh fabricldquoWersquove used the most expensive reflective fabric since we didnrsquot want to lose a life and then think what if we had used something better So we researched for a material that is easily available and cheap to make the base Itrsquos when we zeroed in on denim we started collecting used pairs from people We set up collection boxes across Pune and people dropped in their old jeans One pair of jeans makes eight collars And the material is strong but lightrdquo says Naidu Once ready with the collar Naidu realised that they needed something that would increase the visibility of the dogs during the day too He added a layer of orange mesh fabric to the collar the type used to create security jackets This made the collar visible during day and nightWith the help of two Punebased tailors 1200 collars are made every monthIt took Naidu about a month to finalise the design Naidu says that technology is not used much in animal welfare and he wants to change this He has also developed antipoaching collars for tigers with the help of Varun Natu a student at national chemical laboratory Anay Kshirsagar a student at Symbiosis Institute of Design and Dalvi The collar is currently waiting for approval from Wildlife Institute of IndiaPaws and effectNaidu tells us that their social media presence helped generate immense interest and people from all over India contacted them for the collars Till date the volunteers of Motopaws have collared 2700 dogs in Goa Bengaluru Delhi Assam Uttarakhand Mumbai and Pune But they donrsquot give out the collars to anyone who approaches themldquoWe didnrsquot want the collar to be misused or get sabotaged after months of hard work So we have co coordinators in different cities who when contacted will drop by your neighbourhood to provide the collars and the service for free We have kept it free as the moment Negative publicity tends to creep in with people suggesting that forums are doing welfare in the name of moneyrdquo Naidu explains The cost of each collar comes to R50 which includes R22 as stitching cost Two tailors manufacture 1200 collars a monthMoney mattersInitially the Pune volunteers mostly students were digging deep into their pockets to make the collars As word about Naidursquos initiative soread a mutual contact of Ratan Tata saw his work and asked him to present a file to the industrialist ldquoWe met Mr Tata about eight months ago at Nariman Point in Mumbai He is an ardent dog lover and loves to support the youth too He decided to support us with money from his own pocket not from any of the Tata trustsrdquo Naidu tells proudly While the organisation has been receiving offers from many other companies they have refused the help as Naidu wishes to only associate with a company that shares a link with their causeFuture plansAt the moment 70 of the costs are supported by Tata and 30 by the volunteers Naidu wishes to change that ldquoEven Mr Tata said that eventually we would have to become independent for which we should improve our marketing and other managerial skillsrdquo shares NaiduThe organisation is also looking for other NGOs to provide them with statistics related to dog deaths and injuries due to accidents so that they can have better accountability of the results of their efforts ldquoOur collars donrsquot work for puppies as they grow fast We are almost a month away from developing a reflecting gel which when applied on puppies would stay for two months post which their road skills get better anywayrdquo he signs offTo help Log on to wwwfacebookcommotopawsEmail motopaws2015gmailcom