Vet clinic, pet cafeteria, day care centre at Delhi’s first pet park

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has set the ball rolling for the second phase of its upcoming pet park at Jangpura by initiating the process to hire a private company who will develop play and exercise installations and operate facilities such as a pet shop at the site, officials aware of the project said on Tuesday.
The civic body has also framed rules for entry to the park — only pets that have been registered and are up-to-date with their vaccinations will be allowed, officials said.
The site, spread across an area of one acre along the boundary of the Jangpura-Defence Colony flyover, currently has an enclosure area with toys for dogs to play. The entrance to the park has replicas of various dog breeds, and the entire space has been decorated with graffiti and street art depicting dogs.
Under the first phase, the park was partially developed with multiple shipping containers which were repurposed to serve as a veterinary clinic, a grooming centre and a cafeteria at a cost of ₹55 lakh, the funds for which were provided by the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR).
The second phase will include the hiring of an operator for a period of five years, landscaping of the space, with the development of mounds, dip areas with water, and waste stations. According to officials, the operator will also be responsible for hosting pet parties and pet shows to increase engagement with pet owners in the city.
A senior MCD official associated with the development of the park said that the bidding process to hire an operator will be completed by April 3, and the successful candidate will be given three months to develop facilities at the park.
“The operator will be expected to start the operation of the souvenir shop, pet food, and cafeteria. They will also add the exercise and play spaces, which have been designed to help dogs provide ample exercise and play opportunities,” the official said.
To be sure, the first phase of work on the park was completed in January 2023, but the facility has been shut ever since.
During a spot check on Tuesday, HT found that the park had suffered some maintenance issues related to the beautification work, while the shipping containers were being used by labourers working on the site as temporary lodgings.
The space has graffiti and art depicting various dog breeds indigenous to India — Kombai and Rajapalayam (Tamil Nadu), Himachali hound (Himachal Pradesh), the Indian spitz (north Indian plains), Bakharwal (Jammu and Kashmir), and Mudhol (Karnataka, Maharashtra), among others. The only ones using the facility, though, are community dogs.
However, despite lying unused for a year, no major damage to the park or its facilities was immediately noticeable.
A safe space to play
The pet park was first conceptualised by the erstwhile South MCD in early 2021 as a space where pet owners can bring their pets to play and exercise, borrowing from similar facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
After the unification of the three civic bodies into the present MCD, the first stage of the project was completed. However, a proposal for the second phase, first proposed in the form a policy preamble on March 30, 2023, remained in limbo due to the non-formation of the civic body’s standing committee — a powerful body that controls the purse strings of the municipality.
The proposal was later in December 28, 2023 meeting brought directly before the house of councillors, which greenlit the project.
The official quoted above said that the decision to rope in a private player was taken to reduce financial liabilities. “The private sector is well equipped to access better quality and skilled manpower to take care of pets, and hold their employees more accountable to performance,” the official said.
To raise revenue from the park and fund its operations, the private contractor will also be allowed to use a commercial area of 500 sq ft to provide a vet clinic, a pet shop, and a cafeteria.
Pet registration remains a sticking point
The municipality has also framed rules for accessing the facility — only pets that are registered and vaccinated will be allowed. The pet can be registered either with MCD, or with the local body of other NCR cities. This rule is keeping in mind the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, which mandates the registration of pet dogs with the civic body.
However, Delhi residents have been very reluctant to register their pets — last year, the civic body registered only 3,000 dogs.
Sanjay Mohapatra, an animal rights activist who heads the NGO House of Stray Animals, said that the mandatory registration of dogs is a good idea, but the cost of registration should be minimal and should be a one-time activity instead of annual charges. “If Aadhaar can be made free of cost, dog registration should also be encouraged by reducing the cost. Only the cost of vaccination and veterinary doctor’s services should be made a part of it,” he said.
Conscious of this fact, MCD has decided to set up a licence registration facility at the park. “We will provide a licence registration facility to the veterinary department to help with the registration process,” the MCD official quoted above said.
Other rules for the park include a prohibition on all puppies under the age of four months, aggressive pets, and dogs wearing prong collars.
“The pets would be required to be leashed while entering and exiting the park, but there are off-leash enclosed areas inside\. We have mandated identification collars for the dogs, and a limit of a maximum two dogs per person per visit,” the official added.
Nidhi Sharma, an animal rights activistm said dog owners face problems while taking their pets out for a walk. “Dogs also need open space to roam and undergo physical activity, which cannot be realised in local parks where pet owners are often forced to keep their dogs leashed or even muzzled. MCD needs to develop more such parks in other parts of the city. The entry fee should be kept nominal and the revenue must be used to develop more such parks,” she said.