Hyderabad-based ‘Collar up’ to save strays

City-based entrepreneur puts up reflective collars on stray animals' necks to avoid mishaps

Hyderabad: It was when Chaitanya Gundluri, a city-based entrepreneur, experienced the loss of a friend’s life in a road accident, that he decided to take up an initiative that aims to save animals and people alike from road mishaps in the night.

“My friend had attempted to avoid hitting a stray dog and met with an accident and lost his life. That incident made me want to start this initiative, Collar up. Here we make reflective collars for animals and go to various accident prone areas and put those collars on stray animals’ necks,” says Chaitanya, adding, “The collars have a strip made of a highly reflective material. It reflects light brightly at night and thereby, alerting motorists of animals on the roads.”

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According to Chaitanya, they experimented with several designs before finalising on the best one. “This collar is made of a lightweight material and is simple to put on. It reflects even small lights from a distance of 100-150 metres,” explains Chaitanya.

Another way wherein this initiative, by Planet Guardians Foundation, is benefitting greatly is that they have generated employment for several women below-poverty-line, to make these collars. “We get these collars made by hand by a group of rural women in Haryana. That way, we are able to give some employment to them as well,” says Chaitanya, who has been personally funding this initiative so far.

They have collared 4,100 dogs and 200+ cattle, in 36 cities all over India.

Anyone willing to be a part of this initiative can approach them on their Instagram at instagram.com/collarupngo and also request for collars to put on animals in various accident-prone zones. “We don’t sell these collars and if someone requests for them, we give the collars for free,” says Chaitanya.

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