The Supreme Court has ordered civic authorities in Delhi-NCR to remove all stray dogs from public spaces and shift them to shelters within eight weeks. The move comes in response to a sharp rise in dog bite cases and rabies deaths, especially among children and the elderly. A bench led by Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan instructed authorities in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad to build new shelters and ensure that captured strays are not returned to the streets—a complete break from the long-standing sterilisation-and-release policy under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules.
Currently, Delhi’s Municipal Corporation operates only 20 short-term centres with space for fewer than 5,000 dogs, while the city’s stray dog population is estimated at over a million. Experts warn that building thousands of shelters and staffing them within the deadline is an almost impossible task. The court dismissed concerns about the ABC Rules, calling them “absurd” and stating, “for the time being, forget the rules.”
The directive has set off a wave of criticism from animal welfare advocates, politicians, and NGOs. Maneka Gandhi, a veteran animal rights campaigner, condemned the order as “unworkable and angry,” warning it could harm community dogs and leave them neglected in overcrowded shelters. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called it “cruel and shortsighted,” urging a focus on sterilisation, vaccination, and community care instead of mass removals. Protests have already erupted in Delhi, with demonstrators detained at India Gate.
The numbers paint a daunting picture. Delhi would need around 2,000 permanent shelters to house a million dogs, but none currently exist. MCD sterilisation centres can only handle 2,500 dogs at a time—nowhere near the scale required. In just the first half of 2025, the city reported over 26,000 dog bite cases and 49 rabies deaths.
For some residents, the order is a welcome step toward safer streets. For others, it’s a devastating blow to India’s progress in humane animal management. As the deadline approaches, the challenge of carrying out such a massive operation—without the resources or infrastructure in place—has left the future of Delhi’s stray dogs hanging in the balance.
