Top court stops purge of Delhi stray dogs

Maham Javaid

India’s Supreme Court has issued an order preventing the round up and confinement the multitude of stay dogs that wander Delhi.

Following protests by dog lovers, the court directed local authorities to sterilize, immunize and return the dogs who had been rounded up so far - across India’s capital New Delhi - to the neighborhoods from which they were collected.

The city is estimated to have up to a million stry dogs.

“The mood after the new order is buoyant,” said Meghna Bal, a resident of Delhi who joined protests to stop the mass roundup. “It’s great that the dogs released and returned to their homes.”

The court stipulated that “aggressive dogs” should remain in shelters, without further specifics. The court also said that feeding points should be set for street dogs.

The order comes after residents held street protests to decry an earlier court’s directive on August 11, which instructed authorities to move an estimated hundreds of thousands of stray dogs into shelters, many of which would have to be built within two months to comply. Activists and staffers at animal welfare organisations said they were worried the scramble without planning or resources would endanger dogs.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress party leader and leader of the opposition also spoke out against the verdict. “Blanket removals are cruel, shortsighted, and strip us of compassion,” he said on X.

Nanita Sharma, a lawyer who before the ruling had petitioned the Supreme Court to order municipal authorities to address the city’s long-standing stray dog issue, said that she was relieved the relocation order had been overruled and that this order was “very balanced” but that local officials still had a lot of work to do.

“No one can deny that the overpopulation of dogs in the city is causing problems,” she said. “But the root cause for things getting out of hand is the authorities not following neutering and vaccinating policies.”

The initial court order cited an increase in canine attacks and rabies cases, especially among children.

Activists and lawyers said that while some residents view the dogs as part of their neighborhoods, others see them as a danger and restriction on movement around the city, especially for children and the elderly.

According to India’s existing Animal Birth Control law, stray dogs should be sterilized, vaccinated and then returned to neighborhoods. But last week’s court order said that strategy was not serving the people of Delhi.

One of the cases that prompted the court’s attention, according to the order, was a July Times of India report about Chavi Sharma, 6, who died after a dog attacked her in Delhi’s Pooth Kalan area on her first week of school. Her family submitted a complaint to police against local officials in charge of the managing stray dogs.

One of the cases that prompted the court’s attention, according to the order, was a July Times of India news story about a 6-year-old girl, Chavi Sharma, who died after a dog bit her in Delhi’s Pooth Kalan area, in her first week of school. Sharma’s family submitted a complaint at their local police station, demanding action against local officials in charge of the managing stray dogs.

India saw nearly 430 000 documented dog bites in January and 3.7 million cases over the course of last year, according to government data released in April. Delhi alone, an urban area home to more than 30 million people, accounted for at least 25 000 cases last year.

Neutering and vaccinating dogs is the only proven method to control the spread of rabies and canine population growth, said Sadhwi Sondhi, the founder of Red Paws Rescue in New Delhi.

“There is no denying the fact that rabies and dog bites cases occur but the onus falls on the government-run municipality,” Sondhi said. “Nothing has been done in the past, nor is it being done now on a scale that is needed to help sterilize or vaccinate or rehabilitate aggressive dogs.”

Authorities did not have the necessary funds or resources for the previously directed mass relocation, she said, but “mass vaccinating the community dogs, zone by zone, would require far less money.

“Rounding up all dogs was just not a practical solution to this issue that we are facing in Delhi,” said Sondhi. “It was a death sentence for the dogs.”