Order that undermines humanity

Hindustan Times

10 hours ago

On August 11, the Supreme Court of India ordered the mass removal of dogs from the streets of the national capital region to control what was felt to be a rising dog menace. Nothing unites the city more than what the dogs do. From Lutyens Delhi to Pari Chawk and to the Galleria market in Gurugram, there have been loud voices against the order. The dog and Delhi share a spiritual connect. The Supreme Court, hearing a suo motu case over dog bites in national capital, directed that no stray canines will be released back.(Pixabay/Representative)
At the centre of Delhi's humane, secular and decentralised culture, stands the 2023 ABC notification. It deletes the metaphor of 'stray' or awara and assigns ownership (community-owned) to all dogs and a habitat (streets) under section 7(2). The Order in contravention to this pre-existing legislation relegates the dog to the title of 'stray', not owned by anyone so they can be condemned to shelters. The Court is so shaken by the number of dog bites and rabies data that it neither authenticated it nor reason out through Audi alteram partem but quickly affixed it in a realm of human versus dog debate. In the process, a landmark judgement made by a previous Supreme Court Bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Karol on May 9, 2024 is also rubbished as non-workable. One would wonder on how a judgement can generalise a temporary behavioural aberration of a species as sufficient reason to uproot it en masse from its natural habitat. Such generalisations are dangerous precedents for governance.
Those of us working on dog cases at the trial courts have found that most anti-rabies vaccines are often administered by quacks sitting outside doctor's clinic. They ensure their earning by provoking fear against dogs amongst people. Detailed investigations at these courts have clearly shown the absence of rabies and serious dog bite among most people. Most dog bite cases are also shown as rabies cases.
The plight of dog feeders has completely gone unheard. They have responsibly held spaces within a decentralised implementation mentioned in the 2023 ABC Rules. It also turns out to be the most cost-effective solution since the State being a parens patriae remains responsible for deworming, immunisation and sterilisation [u/s8(2)]. The ABC Rules u/s 3(1) also ensure quality as the animal welfare organisation ought to have obtained a Certificate of Project Recognition by the Board for Animal Birth Control on the basis of its requisite training, expertise, infrastructure and human resources. For an effective implementation of ABC, a monitoring committee is constituted u/s 9, which would meet once a month to take measures for controlling dog population, rabies and man-animal conflict. The Bench never attempted to delve into the sad reality that every local authority from the ward councillor upwards, is not really interested in ABC.
The economics of shifting all dogs to the shelters is mind-boggling. A mass removal of dogs from streets would create irretrievable ecological harm. Monkeys, rats and dogs balance each other, to remove one is to strengthen the other. The judgement goes on to say that the dogs should suffer no harm, cruelty or injury but with minimal manpower and already overstuffed shelters, these dogs would have arbitrary and anarchic journey, alien masters and no health records. Untrained and whimsical wage earners as pickup boys, would not be segregating feeding mothers, sick and older dogs and puppies, so harm, injury, cruelty and death is inevitable. Those stronger ones who survive will struggle for existence and may escape from shelters as aggressive biting dogs.
The shift to shelter homes is not only unethical but also bad economics. To construct one makeshift shelter for 200-300 dogs, one acre of land is required at a cost to about ₹5 crores and a year in construction time. Then to keep it well supplied every month, ₹500 a dog per day is needed for food, medical and manpower expenses. If Delhi-NCR has 10 lakh dogs in a rough estimate, the municipal authorities would need at least 4,000 acres of land, around ₹17,000 crore as initial funds and a stupendous amount as running cost of shelters.
The shift to shelters may also not reduce street dogs. The ethnographic map of NCR is littered with lal dora villages which have never been a subject of any administrative concern for municipal authorities whether its disaster management, encroachment, fire safety or illegal businesses. Since lack of awareness is high in these areas, most dogs picked up from here (if picked up) would be lost or if they remain, they would soon re-fill the empty colonies of adjoining areas from where the dogs have been removed. In all circumstances, even 50% of removal is impossible despite putting the dogs through unnecessary pain and torture.
In the end, the question that remains to be answered is whether dogs are a menace. We would recognise that mounds of garbage, potholed roads, city flooding, blocked drains, overflowing sewers, drugs addiction and deathly noise pollution are a menace. We need to take a step back and look at this whole issue with science as our guide.
This article is authored by Amita Singh, former professor, Law & Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.