The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has lately rolled out a scheme to supply every day nutritious meals to round 4,000-5,000 stray canine throughout the town’s eight zones.
Branded ‘Kukkir Tihar’, this system is a one-year pilot, extendable by one other 12 months based mostly on its success. The BBMP mentioned the initiative is a part of its bigger ‘One Well being’ program, which additionally contains vaccination and animal contraception (ABC) efforts.
Civic officers mentioned this system, estimated to price Rs 2.8-2.9 crore yearly, is aimed toward curbing stray canine aggression, decreasing chunk instances – which at the moment vary between 500 and 1,500 per thirty days – and supporting rabies management efforts by higher monitoring and vaccination.
Beneath the scheme, every canine receives a meal weighing between 367 and 600 gram, comprising 150 gram of rooster, 100 gram every of rice and greens, 10 gram of oil, and a pinch of salt and turmeric, delivering 465-750 kilocalories per serving. These meals are ready in centralised FSSAI-registered kitchens outfitted with CCTV surveillance and are distributed at 100-125 feeding factors per zone earlier than 11 am every day.
The BBMP has invited tenders to onboard distributors for meals preparation and for sustaining cleanliness round feeding spots.
Nevertheless, Tamil Nadu Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram and plenty of native residents have questioned the BBMP’s priorities, arguing that funds could be higher spent on sterilisation, vaccinations, or constructing shelters. Others have identified that the town spends Rs 22 per canine per day on meals, whereas the per-day mid-day meal allocation for a schoolchild stands at Rs 12.42.
“Is that this true? Canines haven’t any place within the streets. They should be relocated to shelters, the place they are often fed, vaccinated & sterilised. Feeding & holding them in a free roaming state within the streets is a big well being & security hazard,” Chidambaram wrote on X.
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Reacting to the criticisms, a BBMP official mentioned, “The feeding program may also assist in monitoring, vaccinating, and sterilising canine as a part of Bengaluru’s aim to eradicate rabies by 2030. Moreover, common feeding improves the canine’ total well being, decreasing aggression linked to starvation and aiding sterilisation efforts.”
Bengaluru has an estimated 2.79 lakh stray canine, with over 16,000 canine chunk instances reported in Might 2025 alone.