MUMBAI: More than 100 government hospitals in Maharashtra do not have anti-rabies vaccines, while 381 lack rabies immunoglobulin, the Bombay high court was told on Friday, as a court-appointed amicus curiae flagged gaps in the state’s efforts to implement directions on stray dog management.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna sought the state government’s response to the recommendations submitted by senior advocate Mihir Desai, the amicus curiae, and scheduled the next hearing for November 2. He also said only 7.5% of dogs found within urban institutions had been shifted to shelters. He also questioned civic bodies’ timelines for addressing implementation gaps, noting that some municipal corporations, councils and nagar panchayats had set deadlines extending up to December 31, 2027, without stage-wise targets.
In his note to the court, Desai flagged the absence of data on the stray dog population, which makes it difficult to assess the adequacy of sterilisation and vaccination drives. It also lacked a timeline for constructing additional shelters.
Several others had not provided deadlines, he said. The state’s affidavit, filed in August, did not specify how many shelters complied with the Animal Welfare Board of India’s standard operating procedure and how many were being upgraded, the note said.
