After eight months of the tragic incident, where 26 dogs died due to starvation inside the premises of NESCO Exhibition Centre, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and NESCO authorities have failed to provide designated feeding spots for the strays.
The death of 26 dogs in July 2024 at NESCO Exhibition Centre in Goregaon (E) had created a widespread outrage among animal lovers as the untoward incident had happened after a management employee and a security guard at the exhibition centre had allegedly prevented an animal lover from feeding around 40 dogs living in the campus. The Vanrai police had also booked the employees for allegedly preventing the feeding of dogs.
After the Pure Animal Lovers (PAL) foundation had issued a legal notice to Nesco, BMC and police, the BMC issued a notice to the exhibition centre in October directing them to designate a feeding spot. The assistant general manager of BMC’s Veterinary Health Department had highlighted guidelines for the management in regards to feeding stray animals inside the premises and earmark feeding spots for strays.
However, after eight months of the incident and five months of BMC’s notice to the exhibition centre, the task to designate feeding spots for stray animals is still incomplete. According to sources, the BMC had scheduled a meeting on March 18 comprising of district SPCA, local body, local police station and society members. However, the meeting was postponed as NESCO stated that their representative handling the matter was unavailable.
Sachin Kulkarni, assistant general manager of BMC’s veterinary health department confirmed that the meeting has been postponed due to unavailability of representative from NESCO. “They gave a letter stating that their representative is not in the city till March 28 and accordingly we informed all the parties about the postponement of meeting. Since the timeline has been asked, we will decide the next date of the meeting in a day or two,” he said.
Roshan Pathak, animal rights advisor with PAL Foundation, said, “According to animal welfare rules, it is mandatory to designate feeding zones for stray animals in public as well as private property. We have been following up this matter with the BMC, collector and the animal welfare committee and still after so many months, the feeding zones have not been designated. Our only aim is that feeding zones should be designated everywhere as per government’s rules.”
