Delhi faces stray dog crisis as SC orders relocation without shelters in place

The Supreme Court’s directive to relocate stray dogs from Delhi-NCR streets to shelters has triggered alarm among NGOs and animal welfare workers, who say the Capital simply lacks the infrastructure to carry it out.

Delhi has no dedicated government shelters to house the tens of thousands of strays that roam its streets. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) currently relies on a network of NGOs operating Animal Birth Control (ABC) sterilization centres — but these facilities are already stretched to their limits.

“It’s an unfortunate order,” said an official from Animal India Trust, which has run a sterilization centre in Lajpat Nagar for over two decades. “We get just ₹1,000 per stray for catching, sterilizing, and releasing the animal. Where will MCD find the funds to house thousands of dogs?”

The Trust’s Jal Vihar Colony centre can hold no more than 400 dogs at a time and performs roughly 100 surgeries a month. The last official stray dog census was conducted in 2016, though the MCD has said a fresh count is planned soon.

Animal welfare groups argue that mass relocation is neither a short-term nor a long-term solution without a parallel push for public awareness. “A dog never bites without provocation — people need to be educated,” the official added, calling the move “a suicidal step” for both strays and human-dog relations.

At Sonadi Charitable Trust in Najafgarh, founder Bandana Sen Gupta is bracing for an influx she cannot handle. “If even 25 dogs show up tomorrow, we have nowhere to put them,” she said. Her centre, which has been operating for 26 years, can house up to 360 dogs but already shelters 100, many of them sick or recovering from injuries. “How will sick and healthy dogs stay together without risking more disease?”

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) runs just two veterinary hospitals and two ABC centres in partnership with nonprofits — and one of those centres is currently closed. While NDMC officials claim no rabies cases have been reported this year, animal welfare groups warn that poor planning could undo years of slow but steady progress in managing the city’s stray population.