After monkeys of Shimla, it is now the turn of stray dogs to get housed in a dog protection park, which Shimla Municipal Corporation proposes to set up on the outskirts of the town. The Corporation has decided to relocate stray dogs to a forest area spread over 16,000 square metres in Panjeri village. The site is situated along the Shimla-Kalka highway at Ghora Chowki. As per a survey, the dog count of the town is 3,758, of which 2,340 have been sterilised till date. "All dogs picked up from the town on the basis of complaints, besides non-sterilised ones, would be shifted to this protection park. Initially, the plan would be implemented as a pilot project for 500 dogs,' said Municipal Commissioner Amitabh Awasthi. Each dog would have a separate kennel in the enclosed area under supervision of experts. A provision of Rs 30 lakh has been made and the project is set to take off in the next few months. After consultation with experts of the Animal Welfare Board of India, from where two consultants would give their services for setting up this park, it has been decided that the behavioral change of first 500 dogs would be observed for the first three months. The success of this plan would signal relocation of the remaining dogs. If the project takes off, the Municipal Corporation plans to encourage people to adopt a stray dog and fund its survival in the protection park. Awasthi said it was being observed that after sterilisation, many dogs had turned aggressive and frequent incidents of increase in dog fights on the roads had become a big menace for locals as well as tourists. After the monkeys relocated by the forest department from Shimla to the primate protection park in Taradevi escaped within a few days, the MC is keeping its fingers crossed for the dog park.