Indian court orders removal of thousands of stray dogs from Delhi region
The sweeping move has set up a clash between public safety advocates and those who see the animals as beloved fixtures of their neighbourhoods.
The ruling on Monday, one of the strongest in the nation's long-running struggle with its street dog population, directs civic authorities to capture all strays, sterilise and vaccinate them and relocate them to newly built shelters. The court gave authorities eight weeks to create the facilities and install CCTV monitoring to ensure no animals are released back on to the streets.
The bench stressed the need for immediate action. 'Round up all stray dogs from all localities … whether sterilised or unsterilised,' Justice JB Pardiwala declared. 'Children must feel safe while cycling and playing. The elderly must feel safe on their walks.'
Stray dog control has become a lightning rod civic issue in Delhi and other Indian cities. While some residents see the dogs as a menace, others consider them to be like family. Many of the dogs are fed daily by 'community feeders' who provide food, water and veterinary care.
Nishima Bhagat, who attended a candlelight march in the centre of the city on Monday night to protest against the court ruling, said: 'We are walking in solidarity to show that there are people for the voiceless. They [the dogs] cannot speak for themselves. They cannot be put into the pounds. We cannot uproot them from the place where they live.'
India bears the highest rabies burden globally. Each year about 5,700 people die from rabies, according to government figures, and the World Health Organization believes the toll to be as high as 20,000 deaths.
The last dog census, in 2012, put Delhi's stray population at 60,000 and the figure now is estimated to be closer to 1 million. Dog packs roam parks, construction sites and residential lanes. Attacks on children and elderly people often make news headlines.
Between January and June this year, Delhi reported 35,198 animal bite incidents and 49 rabies cases, municipal data shows.
Pardiwala dismissed India's animal birth control (ABC) rules, which mandate that sterilised dogs be returned to their territories, as 'absurd' and ineffective. 'All these so-called animal lovers, will they bring back the children who have lost their lives?' he said, urging civic authorities to act decisively rather than debate policy.
The ruling said there could be no exceptions and that anyone resisting the removals would face charges.
Animal protection groups called the order 'impractical and inhumane'. Bharati Ramachandran, the chief executive of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, urged large-scale sterilisation, vaccination, and public awareness campaigns.
Mini Aravindan, a senior official at Peta India, said: 'It's infeasible to build and staff enough shelters for hundreds of thousands of dogs' and the cost would be huge.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Tories accuse Sturgeon of breaking ministerial code over indyref2
The SNP's former Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon released her memoir this week – but it has not quite had the reception she anticipated. The trailed excerpts prompted Alex Salmond's allies to accuse Sturgeon of besmirching her former mentor's name, brought her failed gender reform bill to the fore and confused pro-independence supporters after the Queen of the Nats hinted she was considering a move to, er, London. Now another admission in the 450-page tome has led the Scottish Tories to write to the Scottish Permanent Secretary to examine whether Sturgeon broke the ministerial code. Craig Hoy posted his letter to Joe Griffin on Twitter today, fuming that Sturgeon's memoir had revealed the former first minister had 'wasted taxpayers' money on a doomed court case for party political reasons'. In his letter, Hoy stresses: In the book, the former first minister stated that the Scottish government's reference to the Supreme Court on whether it had the power to hold an independence referendum unilaterally was 'in all likelihood impossible' to succeed. The Scottish ministerial code states that ministers and officials should 'ensure that their decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of the legal considerations and that the legal implications of any course of action are considered at the earliest opportunity'. If the then-first minister has now publicly admitted that she thought it was 'impossible' for this court reference to succeed, yet proceeded with it anyway, this constitutes a clear failure to follow the legal implications of her chosen course of action at the earliest opportunity. Nicola Sturgeon suggested that the reason she proceeded with the reference was because she was 'in a bind' with her party members and supporters. The Supreme Court reference ended up costing taxpayers a quarter of a million pounds. This political use of public money is in clear violation of paragraph 1.4(i) of the ministerial code which states: 'Ministers must not use public resources for party political purposes;'. He went on: Nicola Sturgeon is no longer first minister, so action can no longer be taken against her under the ministerial code, but could you as Permanent Secretary confirm whether you believe this spending complied with the requirements laid out in the code, given Ms Sturgeon's recent comments? If not, will the Scottish government be taking any action to recover the public funds that were spent at the direction of Nicola Sturgeon for what were clearly party political purposes? Good heavens! Has Sturgeon landed herself in hot water over this rather revealing confession? Stay tuned…
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
India 'will not tolerate' nuclear blackmail, says prime minister Narendra Modi in warning to Pakistan on Independence Day
India's Prime Minister has warned Pakistan it will not succumb to, or tolerate, nuclear blackmail. In Narendra Modi's 12th consecutive speech from the ramparts of Delhi's iconic Red Fort, he addressed the nation celebrating its 79th Independence Day from colonial Britain. He laid emphasis on 'Atmanirbhar', or self-reliance, in defending India by increasing and developing a more powerful weapons system for security. Mr Modi said: "India has decided, we will not tolerate nuclear blackmail. We have established a new normal. Now we will not distinguish between terrorists and those who nurture and support terrorists. Both are enemies of humanity" This comes on the back of the conflict in May after the killing of 26 people by terrorists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. In retaliation, India launched attacks on terrorist infrastructure across the border. Pakistan retaliated, which quickly escalated into both countries launching a series of missiles, armed drones and heavy gunfire on each other. After four days of fighting, a ceasefire was agreed to between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that have fought wars and many skirmishes over decades. US President Donald Trump intervened saying: "I know the leaders of Pakistan and India. I know [them] very well. And they're in the midst of a trade deal, and yet they're talking about nuclear weapons... this is crazy. "I'm not doing a trade deal with you if you're going to have war, and that's a war that spreads to other countries, you'll get nuclear dust. When they start using nuclear weapons, that stuff blows all over the place and really bad things happen." 2:58 Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif immediately thanked the American president for the ceasefire and bringing about peace and stability in the region, also recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize as a genuine peacemaker and his commitment to conflict resolution. Mr Modi's government is yet to acknowledge President Trump's intervention and maintains that the Pakistani military initiated the ceasefire process and India agreed to halt military action. 5:52 In parliament, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said: "There was no leader... nobody in the world that asked India to stop its operations. This is something the prime minister also said. There was no linkage of trade in any of these conversations and there was no talk between the prime minister and President Trump." Mr Modi's speech is an audit of the year gone by and his future plans of strengthening the economy and of self-reliance in the face of very high tariffs imposed by President Trump for buying discounted Russian oil. He spoke of bringing in structural reforms, welfare schemes for farmers, women's empowerment, employment, technology, clean energy and the green industry, but also raised concerns about rising obesity levels. India has the fourth largest economy in the world and is expected to be the third largest before Mr Modi's current term ends in 2029. Although when it comes to GDP per capita income, which serves as an indicator of individual prosperity, India is ranked 144 out of 196 countries. The big economy illusion of GDP size has little to do with the well-being and fortune of its people, something the government refuses to acknowledge. In its 2024 report, Paris-based World Inequality Lab said the inequality in India now is worse than under British rule. The research stated that 1% of the wealthiest Indians hold 40% of its wealth and enjoy a quarter of the nation's income. Comparing the 'British Raj' to the 'Billionaire Raj', the study said there are now 271 billionaires in the country and 94 new ones were added the previous year. The rise of top-end inequality in India has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration in the Modi years between 2014-15 and 2022-23. 3:50 With over 1.46 billion people, India is the most populous country, making up 17.8% of the global population. More than half the country is under 30, and it has one of the lowest old-age dependency ratios, enabling productivity, higher savings and investment. A key challenge for the government is to match employment with its growing young population. It's even more critical as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in production and services, eating into jobs. Last week, President Trump levied an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil, taking the total tariff level to over 50% and hitting Indian manufacturing and trade. "I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together," the president said. Since the Ukraine war, India has been buying discounted Russian crude and its imports have risen from 3% in 2021 to about 35% to 40% in 2024. Defending its stance, India says it does so for its energy security and to protect millions of its citizens from rising costs. It's a national day of celebration with patriotic fervour all around, but also a grim reminder of the tragedy of partition - the trauma of which still haunts its people.
The National
4 hours ago
- The National
Scottish Government hits back at Tory MSP over Nicola Sturgeon memoir claims
Craig Hoy called for an investigation to be carried out after Sturgeon wrote in her book Frankly that the Scottish Government's reference to the Supreme Court on whether it could hold an independence referendum was 'in all likelihood impossible' to succeed. He claimed Sturgeon had committed a 'clear violation' of the code in proceeding with the reference. In his letter to Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government, Joe Griffin, he highlighted two parts of the code in a bid to back up his argument, which state that ministers 'must not use public resources for party political purposes' and should 'ensure their decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of the legal considerations and that the legal implications of any course of action are considered at the earliest opportunity'. READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon predicts that UK will 'no longer exist' in 20 years But the Scottish Government has said the reference was 'entirely appropriate'. A spokesperson said: 'The reference of this question to the Supreme Court was entirely appropriate and intended to achieve legal clarity over whether the Scottish Parliament had the legislative powers to hold an independence referendum, in light of majority support within the Parliament for a referendum. It did that.' Griffin will respond to Hoy in due course, The National has been told. Hoy shared his letter on social media claiming Sturgeon had 'wasted taxpayers' money on a doomed court case for party political reasons'. 👇👇👇My letter to the Permanent Secretary: Nicola Sturgeon wasted taxpayers' money on a doomed court case for party political reasons. That's a clear misuse of public funds and a clear breach of the ministerial code. She should repay the money from the proceeds of her book. — Craig Hoy MSP (@CraigWHoy1) August 15, 2025 He went on: 'That's a clear misuse of public funds and a clear breach of the ministerial code. She should repay the money from the proceeds of her book.' He said in his letter: 'Could you as Permanent Secretary confirm whether you believe this spending complied with the requirements laid out in the code, given Ms Sturgeon's recent comments? 'If not, will the Scottish Government be taking any action to recover public funds that were spent at the direction of Nicola Sturgeon for what were clearly party-political purposes? 'I hope you will thoroughly investigate the implications of Nicola Sturgeon's memoir admission.' Elsewhere in Frankly, Sturgeon predicted that the United Kingdom will 'no longer exist' in 20 years' time. She wrote: 'An independent Scotland, a more autonomous Wales and a reunified Ireland will join England, enjoying the benefits of the home rule it will gain as a result, in a new British Isles confederation of nations.' Sturgeon has been under the spotlight all week following the release of her memoir, with gender reform, the breakdown of her relationship with Alex Salmond, and her record in government all coming under intense scrutiny. READ MORE: Ian Blackford will not stand as Holyrood 2026 candidate In a conversation with Kirsty Wark at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Sturgeon denied Salmond had been guilty of 'coercive control' over her, but she did detail how his approval 'mattered to me' and his disapproval 'knocked my confidence'. 'I think, latterly, he probably played on that a little bit, but that was something I realised was there through my psychologist,' she went on. Sturgeon was also heavily quizzed about her leadership around gender reform. Earlier this week Sturgeon said she should have paused gender reform legislation that was going through the Scottish Parliament towards the end of her tenure. The Gender Recognition Reform Bill would have allowed transgender people to self-identify and simplified the requirements to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC), before it was blocked by Westminster from becoming law. She said during the interview that one of the reasons she may not have paused was to not "give in" to transphobic people. During the interview, she also insisted the British monarchy 'should end quite soon'. She said following the death of the Queen – who she described as having a 'mystique' around her that other royal family members don't have – more people were starting to see the 'absurdities' of the monarchy.
