NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai Animals Protection Cell has complained to the NMMC that a local cat at Artists Village in Belapur died due to poisoning because an NMMC worker sprayed larvicide inside the water bowl from where the cat used to drink. A few other local dogs have been reportedly sick after drinking water from their bowls kept on the footpath. The animal activists want the errant civic worker to be suspended.
“On Wednesday, I was shocked to learn from a Belapur feeder that a healthy street cat died after showing symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting, which are classic signs of poisoning. On inspection of her water bowl, it became clear that a municipal worker from Belapur ward had deliberately sprayed larvicide into the bowl for controlling malaria. However, they should not have done so in the water bowls of animals, while fully knowing that cats and dogs drink from there. The feeders also regularly clean these bowls, so that there is no chance of cultivating mosquito larvae in these bowls,'”said activist Arati Chauhan of NMAPC. In her complaint to the civic body, she has also written that this particular civic worker was repeatedly told in the past not to spray larvicide inside the bowls, but he did not listen.
The chief of NMMC public health department, Dr Pramod Patil, told TOI: “I will ask the civic officials to set up a preliminary inquiry to find out all the details of this Belapur case.”
