In this regard, I would like to inform you that it aims to establish effective management of community animals in public spaces, and the guidelines for pets in apartments and communities have also been revised. Many apartments that were ignoring the guidelines issued by the BBMP with wide-open arms started enforcing them immediately after an elderly lady lost her life when a pack of about twelve street dogs viciously attacked her in August, Jakkur.
The apartment overcrowding guidelines issued by the BBMP also imposed some restrictions on certain areas for the feeding of stray dogs, for instance during curfew hours of 11.30pm and 5 am. Resident welfare associations (RWAs) and apartment owners had to refrain from making rules within the bylaws that are abusive towards household pets, upholding all conditions placed that are aimed at the protection of animals, and permitting pets in the communal space and lifts wearing collars instead of muzzles.
Because of the Jakkur event, all households and big housing complexes around the city have become stricter with enforcing these policies whereby pet owners and dog enthusiasts in these apartments have to comply with these policies with penalties and strict enforcement. “At the moment, all the residents with pets are required to submit their details in the gate approval app, which is used for communication and security purposes within our building.”
“When residents plan to take pets inside the property it becomes mandatory to include the allergy and vaccination details of the pets included in the app,” said an apartment owner in Yelahanka who did not wish to be named.
“Everyone belonging to the association has, however, indicated that their particular resident has been found to breach the pet policies of the building, and therefore a notice of violation will be issued. Further that upon the issuance of the first notice, the penalty for subsequent violations will be a fine of ₹500 and ₹1,000 further for an instance of violation.”
One of the residents of the apartment block, Pranav Sreenath, says that his RWA also revised the pet policy in accordance with BBMP policy. “We were empowering ourselves with the corresponding facilities of the apartment, except for pets who were not allowed. But July saw new orders from BBMP, which had more incentives; pets were allowed in the homes. On the other hand, however, other guidelines regarding the safety of pets and of the residents had been ‘broadly’ bypassed. The recent incident of a stray dog has brought the guidelines back on surface and the associations have emphasized on that.”
“Public feeding of stray dogs, in the common facilities of the apartment compound, also was always a problem and created disturbance in ivying of many strays, that disturbed delivery boys and children playing in the complex. Last week, our association instructed residents to only feed stray dogs away from the apartment complex and at the specific time set by the BBMP.”
Sreenath further emphasized that there has been a marked reduction in the instances of dogs coming inside the premises and chasing the residents or visitors,” Sreenath added.
At the same time, the Bureau of Research and Development Institute of the Federation of Apartments in Bangalore (BAF), which has about 1,300 apartment associations, states that the Noida building regulations have solved a lot of problems for the people, “There have been many conflicts between residents in apartments owing pets, feeding community animals etc. The guidelines provided by the BBMP have resolved many issues and created more awareness of the stray feeding in the society. Recently we also had the whole BBMP animal husbandry department as well as his Special Commissioner address members of BAF and give us a detailed presentation on the guidelines,” said Vikram Rai, president, BAF.
In this regard, the residents themselves engaged in the activity of organizing to ensure that the strays are fed every day, thus fixing a time and a place for this to happen. “If there are strays that are getting very violent or aggressive, the residents call the BBMP and ask for help,” he added.
Further instructions for the implementation of the Guidelines referring to Surayia Gadiya s. Rai stressed that in addition to the BBMP guidelines, additional pet guidelines were issued from BAF members including suggestions from Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Fisheries Animal Husbandry Dairying The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to suit BAF.
“Rai added, “In the guidelines we have a lot of documents regarding stray animals and pets and their rights, legal aspects, rights of pet owners in accordance with the Indian Constitution, guidelines for residential associations about pets and pets of the community, and guidelines for the customers.””
