How overcrowded shelters and MCD negligence left Delhi’s stray dogs in limbo
The recent Supreme Court order to confine strays has sparked fierce protests across Delhi; shelter owners and activists talk about neglect by the MCD, unchecked breeding, and a broken system of animal welfare
When one turns to the tenets of Sanātana Dharma, one finds that the dog is no ordinary creature. It is venerated as the vehicle of Lord Bhairava, a fierce form of the Lord Shiva, In the great epic, the Mahābhārata, too, there is a luminous tale involving dogs: the only living being that accompanied Yudhishthira to heaven was a dog. From such traditions it is evident that the dog...
When one turns to the tenets of Sanātana Dharma, one finds that the dog is no ordinary creature. It is venerated as the vehicle of Lord Bhairava, a fierce form of the Lord Shiva, In the great epic, the Mahābhārata, too, there is a luminous tale involving dogs: the only living being that accompanied Yudhishthira to heaven was a dog. From such traditions it is evident that the dog has, since time immemorial, been regarded as a companion of man, friendly in disposition and inseparable from human habitation. Its loyalty is not a virtue discovered in modern times but a quality acknowledged from antiquity. Hence the dog has come to be hailed as man’s faithful ally, even his friend.
However, the dog has become the centre of bitter dispute across Delhi and the nation after a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC), on August 11, directed authorities to remove all stray dogs from public places across Delhi-NCR and house them in permanent shelters, citing public safety and a spate of bite incidents. Within days, SC heard multiple pleas challenging that order and has now reserved its decision, after the Centre pointed to the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023 as the humane baseline for population management (sterilise-vaccinate-return).
The ABC Rules 2023 require stray dogs to be caught, vaccinated, neutered, and released back. This approach aims to control the dog population without cruelty. High Courts in Bombay and Kerala have repeatedly upheld this framework and, in practical conflicts, directed Resident Welfare Associations to identify designated “feeding spots” to reduce friction. Recent Bombay High Court orders have even protected feeders from intimidation by housing societies.
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Following the directive of the Supreme Court, dog lovers have taken to the streets in protest. While Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has instructed departments to avoid “harsh action” against strays until the Court issues its final ruling, dog lovers have denounced the decree as a violation of laws framed for the protection of animals. To explore whether the order could even be implemented in practice, The Federal spoke to Ram Kumar Teper, a member of Animal Rain Basera (ARB Trust), which has run a dog shelter in Trilokpuri since 2019. Housing nearly 150 dogs, the shelter gives refuge to those who once lived on the streets, to animals injured in road accidents, to the sick, and even to some abandoned pets.
Teper contends that the Supreme Court’s directive appears one-sided, perhaps reflecting only a partial view of the issue. In his words, it is often the abandoned pet, once domesticated and suddenly cast into the wild, that becomes aggressive and bites. Such dogs, unused to the chaos of the street, feel isolated and insecure. The indigenous street dogs — what we term strays — rarely attack, for they know that to bite would invite beatings and retribution.
The real crisis, Teper insists, lies in the grave negligence of the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). “Had these authorities acted responsibly, neither would the canine population have swelled uncontrollably, nor would they have become a public menace. Instead, MCD officers often pick up a dog from a well-to-do colony only to abandon it in another neighbourhood, where the disoriented animal, unsettled in unfamiliar surroundings, may turn to biting,” he says.
Teper says that the infrastructure is woefully lacking. The animal hospital maintained by the MCD has not even a laboratory; shelters are out of the question. Neither the Delhi government nor the MCD possesses any dedicated facility for strays. There are no ambulances, no systematic vaccination drives, no serious medical provisions. Behind the surge in strays lies another culprit: the breeders, who profit by mating dogs — chiefly foreign breeds whose puppies fetch handsome prices.
When a female can no longer breed, or when a pup proves unsellable, it is simply abandoned on the streets. The unchecked, often illicit trade of breeders, operating with impunity and collusion, has swollen the numbers of strays. Teper notes that his shelter alone consumes a thousand kilograms of rice each month, but receives no support from the government, not even for medicines or vaccines.
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The country has an Animal Welfare Board of India, which was established in 1962 under Section 4 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (No. 59 of 1960), under the stewardship of late Rukmini Devi Arundale, well-known humanitarian. Years ago, Delhi was advised to form a city-level Animal Welfare Board, but the idea was never realised. Such a board, Teper argues, could formulate coherent and workable policy.
Rohit, a young worker of about 20, has served at the Trilokpuri shelter for three years. He lives nearby and often spends nights with the dogs. He affirms that none has ever bitten him. Injured strays are brought in, and occasionally abandoned pets, provided space is available. Of the Supreme Court’s order, he says: “If shelters are overcrowded beyond capacity, the result will be death, not protection.”
At Trilokpuri’s ARB Trust shelter, which houses nearly 150 street, injured, sick, and abandoned dogs, Ram Kumar Teper warns that the court’s directive is one-sided: abandoned pets may bite, but indigenous strays rarely attack, he says. Photo: Abhishek Rawat
Ambika Shukla, trustee of People for Animals, is even more blunt: “The mandate to send dogs to shelters is impossible. The logistics are staggering. If there are ten lakh dogs, the monthly cost would approach Rs 250 crore. Would not such funds serve the nation better if spent on housing the poor, educating children, or providing medical care?”
“More fundamentally, why should dogs be thought of as intruders into human society? Remove them, and other species — monkeys, cats, rats — will proliferate unchecked. History offers stern warning: when dogs were eliminated from Surat, plague followed. The deaths from plague far exceeded any toll of rabies. Where dogs vanish, thefts too multiply,” she says.
Thus, it appears the SC’s judgment did not weigh all sides or consider all facts. The World Health Organization (WHO) itself has declared sterilisation — the ABC programme — the only effective method of reducing dog bites. Yet its implementation is haphazard: MCD cites broken vehicles, absent staff, and inadequate funding. Instead of leaving the task solely to municipal agencies, central and state governments should fund and collaborate with NGOs, who work with compassion and patience, persuading animals gently to undergo sterilisation. MCD workers, by contrast, often treat dogs with violence.
Incidentally, India bears the heaviest global rabies toll. WHO cites an estimated 18,000–20,000 deaths annually (roughly a third of the global burden), while newer modelling studies estimate a lower—but still grave—figure of around 5,700 deaths per year; both underline systemic gaps in post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) completion. In 2021-22, MCD spent Rs 5.9 crore on stray dogs, of which Rs 5 crore went towards sterilisation only just Rs 70 lakh towards building sterilisation centres. A Delhi Assembly panel put the stray dog population to be an estimated 8 lakh in 2019, up from 5.6 lakh in the MCD’s last census in 2009.
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In its proposed 2025–26 budget, the MCD has allocated only Rs 108.43 crore for veterinary services, which amounts to a mere 0.64% of the total Rs 17,002.66 crore expenditure outlay. In comparison, major heads like sanitation (Rs 4,907.11 crore), public health and medical relief (Rs 1,833.51 crore), and education (Rs 1,693.73 crore) received substantially more funding. In the 2024-25 budget, the estimated allocation for veterinary services was Rs 134.86 crore, meaning the new proposed allocation represents a reduction of Rs 26.43 crore.
Sheltering stray dogs is profoundly expensive. While estimates of up to 1 million free-roaming dogs in Delhi's capital region are cited in media coverage of the SC’s directive, implementation costs are far more daunting: one estimate suggests the logistical and financial burden of relocating all stray dogs to shelters could run as high as Rs 15,000 crore. Even more modest estimates characterise the shelter-only strategy as “staggering” and “unworkable” given current infrastructure limitations.
Animal rights activist and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi has come down heavily on the SC order directing Delhi’s civic bodies to pick up stray dogs and keep them in shelters, describing it as “impractical,” “financially unviable” and “potentially harmful” to the ecological balance. The apex court, which termed the stray dog menace “extremely grim,” had warned of strict action against anyone obstructing the drive. But Gandhi argued that the sheer scale of the task makes it “unworkable.” “You have three lakh dogs in Delhi. To get them all off the roads, you’ll have to make 3,000 pounds, each with drainage, water, a shed, a kitchen, and a watchman. That will cost about Rs 15,000 crore. Does Delhi have Rs 15,000 crore for this?” she told PTI. She added that feeding impounded dogs alone would cost “another Rs 5 crore a week,” warning this could trigger a public backlash.
She also raised questions over the legality and consequences of the ruling, noting that another SC bench had given what she called a “balanced judgment” just a month earlier. “Now, after one month, a two-member bench gives another judgment which says ‘sabko pakdo’ (pick up all). Which judgment is valid? Obviously, the first one, because that’s a settled judgment,” she said. Calling dogs essential “rodent control animals,” Gandhi warned that their removal could create cascading ecological problems: “Within 48 hours, three lakh dogs will come from Ghaziabad, Faridabad because there’s food here in Delhi. And once you remove the dogs, monkeys will come on the ground... I’ve seen this happen at my own house. In Paris in the 1880s, when they removed dogs and cats, the city was overrun with rats.”
In the end, critics insist, SC’s order is flawed. The MCD has failed in its duty, managing to catch only two or three dogs a day. Meanwhile, NGOs and institutions like Sanjay Gandhi Animal Hospital sterilise and treat thousands, but without official support. If policy is to succeed, it must rest on empathy, intelligence, and integrity, not expediency.