The Delhi government has announced a sterilisation and vaccination drive for stray dogs following a Supreme Court order under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules 2023.
The court directed that stray dogs must be released after sterilisation and immunisation, except in cases where they are infected with rabies or display aggressive behaviour.
According to officials, 24 of Delhi’s 78 government veterinary hospitals will be converted into vaccination centres as part of the campaign. The Supreme Court has recognised the Lucknow ABC programme as the national benchmark for humane and effective stray dog management.
The Lucknow model follows a “capture, sterilise, vaccinate, and release” system, which has been praised as humane, scientifically sound and effective.
The court instructed municipalities nationwide to set up dedicated feeding zones and helplines for strays, both of which have been a part of the Lucknow approach for years.
It also extended the case to cover all states and union territories, aiming to create a uniform national policy for controlling the stray dog population.
The drive will also see participation from NGOs, private veterinarians, and volunteers, with an emphasis on humane solutions, according to sources. A 2016 survey estimated that Delhi has around 800,000 stray dogs.
A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria ruled that dogs picked up must be sterilised, dewormed, vaccinated, and released in the same area from which they were taken, except those infected with rabies or showing aggressive behaviour. Infected strays must be sterilised and immunised but kept in separate shelters or pounds instead of being released.
The bench also placed restrictions on public feeding of stray dogs and directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to create dedicated feeding zones in every municipal ward.
Meanwhile, the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC), one of the country’s oldest civic bodies, has begun fitting stray dogs with GPS-enabled collars carrying QR codes to track their location, vaccination status and other details. The initiative is being conducted alongside an ongoing anti-rabies vaccination drive.
Speaking to the media, Shimla Mayor Surinder Chauhan said the effort is aimed at reducing rabies-related deaths and improving public safety.
“Our vaccination and sterilisation drives have been going on for some time. Now, to minimise rabies cases, where deaths were often discovered to have been caused by a dog bite only after the fact, we have started anti-rabies vaccination for dogs. So far, 2,000 dogs have been vaccinated. Alongside, we are attaching QR code collars that, when scanned, will reveal the dog’s position. Dog lovers and animal welfare groups can also track them. For aggressive dogs, we will attach a red tag to identify and handle them separately. We are educating the public, working with social organisations, and starting a massive sterilisation campaign,” he said.
Chauhan added that Shimla may be the first city in India to take such an initiative. Organisations from Goa, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Patiala, and Rampur in Himachal Pradesh have joined the programme. It will also create India’s first digital census of stray dogs.
“Once the programme concludes, the Chief Minister will formally close it,” he said.
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