A mid-day meal scheme to feed stray dogs? Wait what? Yes, you read that right! At a time when cruelty against stray animals is rampant in other parts of India, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has set an example of kindness by announcing a project to feed stray dogs in the city! Animal lovers have welcomed this first-of-its-kind initiative which shows compassion towards stray animals.

The BBMP has floated a Rs 2.80 crore tender for the ambitious programme, which aims to serve daily meals to around 600 to 700 stray dogs in each of its eight administrative zones. The menu, which includes meat, chicken, and egg rice, is designed to ensure proper nutrition for the city’s ever-growing population of street dogs. As part of this program, 5,000 stray dogs will be fed chicken rice every day. The BBMP will spend Rs 22 per dog to provide 367 grams of chicken rice daily, which makes around Rs 2.88 crore per year.

Focus on areas where dog bites are common

Talking about the tender floated by the municipality for feeding chicken and rice to dogs, BBMP Special Commissioner Suralkar Vyas told ANI, “BBMP takes a lot of steps to not only control the population of street dogs but also to vaccinate them to prevent rabies. As part of that initiative, in the BBMP areas where dog bite cases are more common, either there is no one to feed the dogs, or there is a conflict between feeders and locals, so to reduce the aggressiveness of dogs and scavenging, we decided to take up this initiative to feed the dogs.”

“It complies with Animal Welfare Board of India’s animal husbandry guidelines. Keeping those in mind, wherever these type of focussed areas are there, we are trying to take up the feeding exercise. In the eight zones of the BBMP, Rs 36 lakh is allotted to each zone and we will be taking 400-500 dogs for feeding at 100 locations per zone,” he further said.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: On tender floated by BBMP for feeding chicken and rice to dogs, BBMP Special Commissioner Suralkar Vyas says, “BBMP takes a lot of steps to not only control the population of street dogs but also to vaccinate them to prevent rabies. As part of that… pic.twitter.com/CFD9ebY4Eb

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2025

Aim is to ensure public safety, reduce aggression and prevent scavenging

The program was first introduced under the name ‘Kukkir Tihar’ as a community campaign. The purpose is to tame aggressive dogs to ensure public safety and at the same time encourage compassion among people towards strays. BBMP officials are of the opinion that the scheme is also a crucial public health measure. They argue that ensuring street dogs are well-fed will help reduce the number of scavenging incidents, control aggression, and improve overall hygiene in public areas.

Animal welfare groups have welcomed the initiative, calling it a progressive step towards compassionate and responsible urban governance. They believe the scheme could improve the health of stray animals and help curb aggressive behaviour caused by hunger and neglect.

However, the initiative got a mixed reaction from netizens who are questioning BBMP’s “priorities”.

BBMP’s stray dog vaccination programme

In February this year, the BBMP announced a combined vaccine scheme for street dogs, integrating it with the Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) programme. The 5-in-1 Canine Core Combined Vaccine targets canine distemper, canine hepatitis, canine parvovirus, canine parainfluenza, and canine leptospirosis.

BBMP Commissioner Tushar Girinath stated that they have set a target of vaccinating 1.84 lakh dogs under this initiative. “Out of the Rs 4.9-crore budget, Rs 4.3 to Rs 4.4 crore has been allocated for procuring vaccines, while the remaining funds will be used for logistics, including cold chain storage,” he had said.