Dog park being established in Ooty

Tamil Nadu’s first dog park is being constructed at the tree arboretum in Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris.

The project is being implemented at a cost of ₹40 lakh at the tree arboretum, which has seen relatively small number of visitors, especially after entry fee to visit the park was imposed by the Horticulture Department, which maintains the area. The land had been handed over to the department in 2006 for maintenance of the tree park after encroachments were removed a few years ago, officials stated.

On Wednesday, the Nilgiris District Collector, Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru, visited the construction site to ascertain the progress of the project. The district administration said that the Nilgiris has high dog ownership. However, there were very few places which were pet-friendly.

In addition, visitors to the Nilgiris often bring their animals with them. However, as pets were banned in all the major tourist spots and forest areas, tourists often have to leave their animals alone at resorts or at homestays with little or no means for them to exercise. The under-construction dog park will fill a much-needed niche for tourists and also push visitor numbers up in the long-run, hope officials from the district administration, who said that visitors will have to keep their animals on-leash during their visit to the park.

The dog park has a fully functional obstacle course to keep animals entertained, officials added. The work on the park is being undertaken by the Public Works Department.