BMC to set up three animal incinerators in city

The city civic body has decided to open three animal incinerators to dispose of the carcasses of pet animals free of cost, an official has said.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta decided to set up the incinerators after taking into account the rising number of pets in the city, he said.

The incinerators, to run on compressed natural gas and cost around Rs 2 crore each, will be set up at Mahalaxmi (in south Mumbai), Deonar (eastern suburb) and Malad (western suburb), the BMC official said yesterday.

At present, there is only one private animal crematorium at the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals in Parel, said Yogesh Shetye, the general manager of the civic-run Deonar abattoir, who is co-ordinating the project.
 

Tenders will be floated by June for setting up the new incinerators. The facilities are expected to be operational by next year, another civic official said.

"The carcasses will be disposed free of cost at these facilities, which would be operated on a public-private- partnership basis," he said.

There are over 300 private animal clinics in the city while the BMC also runs a pet clinic in suburban Khar, Shetye said.

At present, the Kora Kendra, an NGO run by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission in suburban Borivali, picks up and buries carcasses of stray cattle free of cost, he said.

As per an animal census conducted in 2012, there were around 33,572 dogs in the city, the BMC said in a statement.

A similar census in 2014 revealed that there were 95,172 stray dogs in the city. Of them, 69,239 canines were sterilised under the animal birth control programme, it said.