Hyderabad: NGO aims to put unique collars on stray dogs to save them from road accidents

In a unique initiative to prevent road accidents, an NGO in Hyderabad has now taken the mammoth task to put reflective fluorescent collars around stray animals, especially dogs. The NGO named ‘Collar Up’ was set up last November with an aim to prevent animals from getting hit by speeding vehicles while also mitigating the probability of road accidents that occur while trying to save them. The team now aims to put a collar on around four lakh animals in the next couple of years. 

Speaking to ANI, the NGO founder Chaitnya Gundluri, highlighted that all the animal collars are made up of lightweight material and safe for animals. “They would help people driving at night to identify animals from a distance,” he added. Talking about the idea behind the NGO, he asserted that being a full-time traveller, he had witnessed the drastic situation of stray animals being hit by moving vehicles, which propelled him to do something for them.

"Every time I went on road trips, I witnessed many animal carcasses that were hit by fast-moving vehicles. This is one reason why I have decided to do something for stray animals," said Gundluri.

Hard-hitting tragedy 

One particular incident that gave him the initial thought of starting the initiative involved the loss of his best friends, who was killed trying to save a stray animal on the road. The entrepreneur said that it was on one of his treks that he met a lady and her dog had an LED light collar attached to it which was clearly visible from a very far distance. It was then that Gundluri started researching fluorescent collars. In order to come up with more user-friendly and light-weighted collars, he finally came up with a collar having a fluorescent strip, a nylon belt and a plastic holder.

At present, the organisation boasts of  270 volunteers in six states who are all working in 36 different cities to save stray animals. At times, he says they are able to collar over 200 dogs in a single day. Detailing how he funds the collars,  Gundhuli said "To date, I was only using my savings to go ahead with this initiative. After that, people started making donations to come forward and help stray animals.” 

(Image Credits: Collar up/Facebook/ANI)