What is a reflective belt?

A reflective collar is simply a belt with a cotton base and a reflective tape over it. The property of this reflective tape is that it glows when light falls on it. "The reflective belt glows when headlight of a motor vehicle falls on it, thereby alerting the driver to the presence of a stray animal, thus averting mishaps. It is simple and very effective. Currently, we have come up with collars for dogs and cattle," said Simrandeep Kaur, a Dhyan Foundation volunteer.

GargiGogoi, another volunteer with Dhyan Foundation, initiated the drive in Mumbai. "About two-and-half months ago, a stray dog in my area was hit by a motorbike during night and the animal got paralysed. But with proper medication, he is doing fine now and is taking shelter in my house. Feeling helpless, I was thinking about a solution to reduce accidents involving strays and that's when I got to know about reflective collar belts being used in Chennai to save stray dogs. Not knowing where to procure the collars from, I sought help from Dhyan Foundation and we ourselves made reflective collars for dogs and cattle," said Gogoi.

She takes care of about 250 stray dogs of her area in Charkop and wants to first tag the reflective collars on them. "We have already tagged 34 out of the 250 dogs and within two weeks, we will tag the rest. We will also be taking this forward by tagging cattle as they too are victims of road mishaps after sunset," added Gogoi.

Reflective belts give identity to strays

Reflective belts not only save the strays from accidents but also give them an identity, thus reducing chances of their abuse by humans. "A collar denotes ownership of an animal. It denotes that the dog or cattle is being taken care of by somebody, thus chances of any kind of abuse on them are reduced," added Kaur.