Starting today, 2000 stray dogs across Mumbai to get reflective collars

Mumbai: To protect stray dogs from accidents during the night, Planet for Plants and Animals (PPA), a popular online forum for welfare of environment and animals, will launch a drive, along with students of Mithibai College, to put reflective collars on approximately 2000 stray dogs in Mumbai.

PPA volunteers and members of Kshitij (college festival of Mithibai) will launch the drive from Marine Drive today. The drive will be inaugurated at the Sunday Streets event at Marine Drive and will be completed in a phased manner over six weeks.

The first phase will cover strays at Marine Drive, Juhu Beach, Dadar Shivaji Park, Bandra Carter Road, Bandstand, Worli and Palm Beach Road. Strays located near high-speed roads will be collared first.

PPA founder Saakshi Teckchandani, said, “The idea of this campaign is to protect our strays from accidents. Reflective collars are very effective as it prevents accidents. We want to implement this campaign pan India through our stray feeder’s network & wish to cover all metropolitan cities.”

Om Bhanushali, Team Kshitij chairperson said that this year’s social cause for Kshitij is protecting our strays.

Recently, a silent protest at Dadar’s Shivaji Park was organized by animal lovers against an order passed by Bombay High Court’s Nagpur Bench. The order, passed by a division bench of Justice Sunil B Shukre and Justice Anil Pansare, stated that no resident of Nagpur and surrounding areas could feed stray dogs in public places—if they wanted to, they had to first adopt the dog or put it in a shelter and then continue with the feeding. The court directed the Nagpur municipal commissioner to ensure that the order was carried out.

(Citizens who wish to support the initiative can connect with PPA on their social media pages).