Bengaluru’s East City Corporation plans to establish two veterinary dispensaries in Garudacharpalya and KR Puram, offering free treatment to rescued stray animals and subsidised care for pets. The initiative, being taken up by the Greater Bengaluru Authority’s East City Corporation, follows a rise in calls and complaints about injured animals in the zone.
The Garudacharpalya facility is under renovation and is expected to begin functioning in the first week of October, according to a senior corporation official. The proposed KR Puram dispensary is still in the planning stage, with officials looking for a suitable building in the area.
The dispensaries will be staffed by trained veterinarians and equipped with basic healthcare facilities. The corporation has allocated around Rs 35 lakh for the initiative, which is intended to improve access to treatment for animals in a part of the city where civic veterinary services are currently limited.
“East zone has around 60,000 stray animals and more than 30,000 pet animals, taking the total to nearly one lakh. We receive a large number of complaints and requests for veterinary services, given the shortage of such facilities in urban areas after all such clinics were pushed to the outskirts,” the official said.
The planned facilities add a fixed-location component to the city’s existing animal healthcare response. The Bengaluru East City Corporation had introduced mobile veterinary clinics a few months ago to treat rescued stray animals. The new dispensaries are expected to provide a more regular point of access for residents, caretakers and animal welfare groups seeking treatment.
However, animal welfare activists said the scale and range of services would determine how much the facilities can address the demand. Bengaluru-based activist Nandita Subbarao welcomed the move but said that multiple dispensaries could end up being small and basic. She suggested that fewer, larger facilities with blood-testing and X-ray equipment, as well as boarding capacity, could offer more comprehensive care.
Sadhana Hegde, founder of Sahavarthin Animal Welfare Trust, also supported the proposal and called for free animal birth control services. She said caretakers could bring dogs for neutering and either take them home or place them in boarding, adding that private neutering can be expensive.
The corporation has not announced the exact opening date for the KR Puram facility or specified whether advanced diagnostic, boarding or animal birth control services will be included. The immediate implementation milestone is the expected opening of the renovated Garudacharpalya dispensary in October, while officials continue the search for a building in KR Puram.
