India's top court wanted Delhi's stray dogs gone, but it may have worsened the issue
- - India's top court wanted Delhi's stray dogs gone, but it may have worsened the issue
Mithil AggarwalOctober 25, 2025 at 11:02 PM
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Veterinarian Rahul Malik administering a treatment to a dog at Dulari Animal Care Centre in Noida, India, this month. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
NOIDA, India — Sujata Bisht is proud to be called the “grandma” of over 40 dogs in this city, which sits just southeast of New Delhi.
Now and then, she rounds up her team — fellow “mothers” and “fathers” who each look after about five dogs on their respective streets — to vaccinate every one of them against rabies.
“They’re like children for me,” Bisht, 55, said.
In and around India’s capital, stray dogs are as ubiquitous as humans.
They are known as “indies,” or Indian native dogs, a mixed breed recognized for being resilient and intelligent. However, managing their high numbers has become a test of governance and compassion in increasingly dense megacities such as Delhi, which has a population of over 33 million.
In August, India’s Supreme Court ordered that all stray dogs in Delhi’s capital region, which includes Noida, be permanently relocated to shelters after sterilization, citing canine bites and rabies. The decision faced immediate backlash, with protesters clashing with police and messages of solidarity from celebrities.
Dulari Animal Care Centre houses over 100 stray dogs. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
The court reversed its original order a few days later and ordered that the dogs be returned to their original locations after vaccination and sterilization. But activists say the court’s back-and-forth may have only worsened the problem.
“Those who wanted the dogs gone are now more emboldened,” said Rahul Malik, a veterinarian at Dulari Animal Care Centre in Noida. “They’re making more and more complaints about removing the dogs.”
The increased hostility, he said, has sown fear among those who regularly feed the dogs and in some cases deterred them from putting out food, making hungry dogs hungrier and raising the chances that they will become aggressive.
“People are scared now and face threats that they will be reported if they don’t stop feeding,” Malik said.
Malik administering a rabies vaccine to a stray dog. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
Sarla Agarwal, 80, said she had been bitten by dogs twice and that “stray dogs roam around streets, bark and get aggressive when they don’t find food.”
“I don’t want the dogs to be killed,” she said. “Just make enough shelters that can accommodate all of them.”
Dog bites are no small matter in India, which according to the World Health Organization accounts for nearly a third of the world’s rabies deaths — between 18,000 and 20,000 per year, compared with fewer than 10 in the United States. Up to 60% of India’s reported cases of rabies occur in children under the age of 15, and bites often go unreported and untreated.
Malik, 27, spends most of his day either at his shelter or outside on rabies vaccination drives. He refers to his dogs as “beta,” which translates to “son” in Hindi and is a term of endearment, refusing to use any other word for them.
Animals at Dulari Animal Care Centre. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
The tucked-away shelter in a relatively quiet patch of the capital region quickly comes alive whenever there is a new visitor, with occasional howling and barking. On a recent day, more than 120 dogs, one cat and two monkeys were at the shelter, some of them abandoned, rescued from the streets due to aggressive behavior, or suffering from maggots or tick fever.
Dogs around Delhi usually mind their business, which includes basking in the sun, rummaging through trash for food or chasing away rats. They also act as security guards at night, barking at strangers and keeping the city’s wild monkeys in check.
Some of them are collared, while some have names given by whomever they spend most of their time around. In a market, that could be the tea seller, while in residential areas, it’s usually people like Bisht.
In any case, the dogs can become like family for those who regularly feed them.
Feeders playing with a stray dog on the streets of Noida, a city that is part of India’s capital region.
But the back-and-forth of the court has given air to those whose vision of Delhi doesn’t include dogs on the street — or people feeding them.
“They face verbal abuse and are often asked to feed the dogs elsewhere,” said Narendra Kumar Chhari, 32, who manages the shelter.
“It’s gotten so bad that the feeders have to sneak out at 4 a.m. just to feed the dogs,” he added.
The dogs are also at risk of being attacked by residents.
With the help of local feeders, Malik vaccinates stray dogs in Noida. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
“They become aggressive after people beat them, or deprive them of food, or neglect their care,” Chhari said. “It’s usually because the dog doesn’t have any food to eat or any place to rest or heal that it bites.”
In its latest order, the court said that only dogs that were suffering from rabies or were hostile should be kept in shelters, while others should be dewormed, sterilized and vaccinated.
But the onus is falling on ordinary residents like Bisht.
On a recent afternoon, she and her team, which included Chhari and Malik, went around administering vaccines from a cold storage box, leaning on “parents” such as Geeta Gupta, who looks after about six dogs on her street, two of whom live mostly inside her home.
Local feeders searching for stray dogs under a car to vaccinate against rabies vaccine in Noida, India, on Tuesday. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
The parents have unique ways of rounding up their dogs: Some whistle, while others yell “Aao,” or “Come.”
Vaccination is not easy. Dogs that felt threatened by Malik’s syringes hid under cars or called for backup by barking. Only their parents were able to calm them, or lure them out with milk.
“The way we have our homes, the streets outside are homes for the dogs,” said Gupta, 40. “They’re like our own children — no matter how crazy they are, we can’t just dump them.”
Malik playing with a stray dog at the shelter as it recuperates from injuries. (Saumya Khandelwal for NBC News)
Source: “AOL General”
