chennai the tamil nadu animal welfare board has allocated 20 crore to various animal welfare organisations including the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals spca and other ngos to help them take care of abandoned livestock pet animals and strays they can use this fund to buy ambulances create infrastructure facilities and buy feed and medical kits to treat injured animals in an earlier government order in october the commissioner of animal husbandry and veterinary services in his proposal had stated that the livestock including cattle horses sheep and goats which have been domesticated as well as companion animals like dogs and cats are dependent on their owners for their survival and many of such animals are orphaned and left to fend for themselves due to various reasons during the covid19 pandemic the tamil nadu animal welfare board took affirmative action to mitigate the sufferings of thousands of stray animals by coordinating with the department of animal husbandry and by supplying feeder passes and raw material to nongovernmental organizations ngos and animal welfare organizations awos throughout the state to take care of such animals he said in order to mitigate the sufferings of abandoned and stray animals on a permanent basis and in order to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of saint vallalar the government is implementing the vallalar palluyir kaapagangal scheme to support the efforts for animal welfare all interested ngos need to fill forms and apply for registration before they are selected and the funds disbursed shruthi vinod a member of the tamil nadu animal welfare board said several ngos are not registered with any board some have registered with just animal welfare board of india awbi many calls have been received to buy ambulances to pick up animals injured in hit and run incidents this fund will help ngos efficiently the scheme has four components any ngo that is registered can apply for funds for purchasing ambulances facilities for treating injured animals to set up infrastructure for animal welfare and for animal birth control measures she said something like this has never been done before she said it will encourage ngos to be more proactive though many work actively they dont have fundsrecently toi had visited several centres of the spca across the city and found that none of them was functional only six or seven of the total 37 odd spcas are active now they have not been functioning for several years and this will help to make them more involved and function again said activists