Srinagar, Aug. 31 -- After a halt of nine months, the dog sterilisation and vaccination programme has restarted in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar which has been reeling under an increasing stray dog population with official data revealing over 14,500 dog bite cases in the past 28 months in the Valley.

The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) restarted the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme earlier this month after it was stopped in November last year owing to winter. It was supposed to start in March this year but lack of response to the tenders for the sterilisations further delayed the programme.

Officials of the SMC said that the programme has now started and they would be sterilising 21,000 dogs in coming months.

Faizil Bashir...