A Kolkata-born couple has set up a shelter in Jharkhand's Ranchi district to look after old, sick, abandoned, injured and handicapped stray animals.

The couple — Somen Mazumdar (45) and Sonali Mazumdar (45) — runs the shelter, which houses over 120 canines mostly stray, with help of public donations in Tang Tang Toli village in Angara block, some 35-km from Ranchi city.

There are around 50 physically challenged dogs in the shelter, which were rescued from different parts of the capital city. These dogs are either crushed by vehicles or victims of human cruelty, they said.

The Mazumdar couple has not only provided them shelter but also treatment so that they could enjoy their right to live.

However, their love for canines was not welcomed either by the family members or relatives.

"Nobody from our family or relatives visit us as we live, eat and sleep with dogs. Initially, it pinched us. But now, we don't regret it. We live happily with our bachche (dogs). They are our only family," Sonali told PTI.

She said that their only 21-year-old son Sourya has also dedicated his life to the service of dogs, apart from his passion for music.

Set up in 2017 on an area of 15 decimal land, the shelter has different sections such as hostel for foreign breeds, cages for aggressive, sections for paralysed and cured animals and clinic.

Narrating painful story of a two-year-old Laila (black female Labrador), Somen, who is popularly known as Dog Wale Uncle in his locality, told PTI, "The Labrador was rescued from Ranchi’s ITI bus stand, which was in deep pain due to acid burn on her body... The dog was brought to the shelter and was provided proper treatment for many months. The dog is healthy now." The shelter has many such painful stories of canines.

In a bid to provide respectful bid adieu, the couple claimed to have set up the state's first burial ground only for dogs. "Burial ground for dogs has not been created in any parts of the state," he said.

The animals are given proper food twice a day. Sonali and Mohini, a domestic help, cook for the animals every day. "Around 25-kg of rice and 20-25 kg of chicken are served to the animals daily," she said.

"We both have love for animals. So, we started our journey by providing dog training and hostel facility to foreign breed keepers in Ranchi’s Chutia area. When dog owners go on vacations, they keep the animals in the hostel for a certain price," Somen said.

In the meantime, they also accumulated many stray dogs, who suffered from road mishap injuries. So, finally they decided to buy a piece of land for a dog shelter in Ranchi outskirts. In 2017, they started the shelter but they were in a deep financial crisis to even buy food for animals.

"We were told that if we registered the shelter, we would get funds from different NGOs and government. In 2019, we registered it as Animal Welfare Trust (AWT). Then, we started approaching people for donations to buy food for the animals. Besides, we also took a loan for the shelter. Right now, I have a burden of Rs 18 lakh bank loan," Somen said.

He claimed that they approached 512 companies in the country with their project for donation from their corporation social responsibility (CSR) fund. "All appreciated our work. But, we did not get any fund, as they said they do not have any funding scheme for animals," he said.

Thereafter, they coined an idea of a digital adoption plan to generate funds. Under the plan, common men or dog lovers are requested to adopt at least one dog for lifetime at Rs 100 per day. "Till now, 22 people have adopted dogs. We hope more people will come in support of the dogs," he said.

The shelter has a capacity of 100 dogs but the number has already crossed 120-mark. "We are not able to take more canines due to space crunch. But, if dogs are adopted, we can enhance the facility and might raise the capacity to up to 500 animals," he said.

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