After years of dragging its feet, the civic body finally wants to ramp up sterilisation of stray dogs by increasing its capacity to catch them by almost double. It is willing to pay Rs 680 per dog to catch and release them in their territory. The overall cost for two years would come up to Rs 2.37 crore to catch 34,000 dogs. The city witnesses around 85,000 dog bites every year, though the number reduced by half this year probably due to the lockdown.

"An un-sterilised female dog can give birth to at least four puppies and they become fertile within a year. Thus the number of dogs has increased continuously. It is estimated that there are between 2 to 2.25 lakh dogs in the city and of these, 1.40 lakh are not sterilised," said Dr Yogesh Shetye, general manager of Deonar abattoir and project in charge. The BMC manages to catch 18,000 to 20,000 dogs for sterilisation with the help of three private agencies. There is a need to catch an additional 17,000 dogs for sterilisation.