Bhanushali, who is also the chairperson of Kshitij, Mithibai’s annual cultural festival, said, “Every year Kshitij picks up a social cause. This year, we are collaborating with PPA to spread awareness about animal welfare and engage the youth in protecting strays by holding an awareness campaign, feeding drive and putting reflective collars on strays.”

Also read: Moved by plight of strays on Elephanta, tourist raises alarm

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A student collars a dog at Marine Drive in South Mumbai

Talking about the initiative, Saakshi Teckchandani, 23, founder of PPA, said, “This is a pioneering project to protect our stray dogs. The reflective collars will act as a strong precautionary measure. We intend to spread and extend this initiative across India”

The first phase of the campaign began on Saturday and covered Marine Drive, Juhu beach, Dadar’s Shivaji Park, Carter Road and Bandstand in Bandra, Worli and Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai wherein groups were assigned 100 collars for each main road where vehicles are driven at high speeds, the organisers told mid-day.

Nearly 300 stray dogs were collared in total on both days. According to PPA volunteers identified the strays through their network of local feeders. Eventually, PPA plans to expand the initiative in metropolitan cities where roads allow commuters to drive up to 60kmps.

Advocate Trivankumar Karnani, founder of MNCDF, said, “The initiative is a joint campaign by PPA and team Kishitij from Mithibai College, and is solely a youth initiative. MNCDF is supporting them. Tagging strays with reflective collars is a good initiative; it will help people driving at night to identify animals from a distance.”

2,000
The no of strays the volunteers hope to collar by the end of the drive