Panvel Municipal Corporation has over 19,000 dogs and over 5,000 cats across the municipal corporation area. As many as 8523 or about 40.40 per cent of the stray dogs have been sterilised and no canine has been found with rabies.

Panvel becomes the first municipal corporation to conduct the survey that was carried out as part of the National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP) to identify stray animals through Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dr Vaibhav Vidhate, deputy municipal commissioner, PMC, said.

The NRCP aims to control and eliminate dog-mediated rabies in India by 2030 through a combination of human and animal health components, including free rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins, training healthcare professionals, and strengthening surveillance and awareness.

The survey was conducted by the PMC between November 2024 and March 2025.

To ensure fool proof results, PMC leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) app. “Census of animal population is difficult. About 5-6 photos of the animals are taken and AI is leveraged to identify them otherwise much time and human resource is wasted as the same animals may be caught repeatedly,” he said.

The survey report has presented information that there are about 19371 thousand stray dogs and 5080 thousand cats in the municipal area. It has been stated that 9000 pet dogs are in Panvel.

Sterilizing the stray dogs is part of the Rabies Free campaign. “The report revealed that more than 40 percent of dogs in Panvel have been sterilized,” Mangesh Chitale, commissioner, PMC, added.