Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation here continues to turn a blind eye to a direction from the Animal Welfare Board of India on stray animals that continue to roam freely on the city streets.

The board, a unit of the Union ministry for environment, forests and climate change, had recently directed urban local bodies to rehabilitate the stray animals found in their jurisdiction.

The board had stated that allowing strays on the streets amounted to cruelty to them as well as inconvenience to the public. The move for rehabilitation not only aimed at ensuring the safety and security of the strays - monkeys, dogs and cattle - but also of the public since these animals often pose a risk to people.

"The bulls block roads in different parts of the city and create traffic congestions. They pose severe safety risks, mainly for the bikers. Dogs and cats also contribute to this. The situation is worst at Old Town where I often face problems because of these animals," said local resident Jagannath Patra.

Civic sources said the situation arose because of a lack of manpower and inadequate infrastructure to keep the animals in check. The civic body has one small kine house that can accommodate 15 cattle at a time. It doesn't have a single shelter for stray dogs. It does run a veterinary hospital at Saheed Nagar in collaboration with the animal husbandry department and sterilises about 300 dogs against rabies a month.

Capital Hospital has an anti-rabies vaccination clinic to vaccinate people who suffer dog bites.

"They make plans for people, but not for the animals. If the civic body can manage solid waste in a well-planned manner, the stray dog population will not increase. But stray cattle, cats and monkeys need to be rehabilitated," said Bhuanupriya Panda, an animal lover.

The civic body has planned to construct a kine house and identified 15 acres on the city outskirts. But the project has been hanging fire for two years because of encroachment problems.

The civic body had also planned collaborations with voluntary organisations to increase the number of sterilisation camps, but in vain.

"We have reached a solution for the land problem for the kine house project. It will be executed shortly," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

"We are taking steps to strengthen the animal birth control programme by increasing sterilisation camps and introduction of anti-rabies clinics at our hospital in Old Town," Jena said.