After Supreme Court order, Bengaluru building shelters for 2k stray dogs

Bengaluru: After Supreme Court’s recent directive to remove stray dogs from institutional premises and shift them to designated places, Bengaluru is building shelter homes with a capacity to house 2,100 dogs across five city corporations of Greater Bengaluru Authority. These homes are expected to be ready before Aug.While civic agencies have been making ground-level preparations, most facilities are at varying stages of execution. The civic authorities have started identifying stray dogs in institutional areas.Corporation officials confirmed the dogs will not be picked up from the public places until the shelters are ready.The multi-pronged exercise follows the Supreme Court directive of Nov 7, 2025, that mandates local bodies to identify stray dogs within institutional areas such as schools, colleges, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots and railway stations, and relocate them to shelters after sterilisation and vaccination. The court directed that the stray dogs removed from such institutional premises should not be released at the same location, as was the case earlier.Officials have so far identified 2,696 institutional stray dogs across Bengaluru, including dogs found around campuses, institutions and other establishments. Of these, North accounts for 901 dogs, followed by West (591), Central (504), East (369), and South (331).A tender has been floated to engage NGOs for maintenance, administration and day-to-day management of the shelters, once operational.The court observed that implementation of Animal Birth Control Rules, 2001, has been “ineffective” across jurisdictions. ABC Rules state that the Capture-Sterilise-Vaccinate-Release model as the principal method for controlling stray dog population, prohibiting indiscriminate culling and requiring municipal authorities to undertake sterilisation and vaccination in coordination with animal welfare organisations.Bengaluru city saw a total of 10,423 dog bite cases from January to March this year, of which 6,254 were attributed to stray dogs and the rest to pets. Five city corporations together have eight ABC centres.Animal activists have expressed concern over the implications of the order. Sathwin Putta, an activist from South Bengaluru Cares, said the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach could set back the progress made in stray dog management in municipalities. “It results in gross injustice to innocent animals which may have peacefully lived alongside humans and will now be confined for life,” he said.Sujaya Jagadish from Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the focus must shift to ensuring the order is implemented correctly. “We’re worried about non-compliant shelters being built to house institutional dogs. Once operational, there is no going back. Overcrowded and unhygienic shelters could trigger disease outbreaks, harming both animals and people,” she said.