How MCD’s Stray Plans Have Gone Astray

New Delhi: Despite submitting an affidavit before Supreme Court outlining a plan to tackle the stray dog menace, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has made little progress on implementing the proposed measures, with key initiatives moving at a sluggish pace.The delay is due to a lack of coordination between departments of the corporation and procedural delays, sources said.To begin with, work on a proposed dog shelter in Dwarka, meant to house aggressive dogs, has not yet started. While the MCD commissioner has approved the project, funds are yet to be released by the public health department, the sources said.The facility is planned as a permanent shelter with a capacity to house around 1,500 dogs. No update on it could be provided by the department.Further, to scale up the sterilisation programme, MCD proposed constructing additional kennels at five animal birth control (ABC) centres — one each in Bijwasan, Bela Road and Usmanpur, and two in Rohini.A project for developing the kennels at the Bela Road centre — for keeping dogs for two to three days while administering them anti-rabies vaccination — was finalised. “At Bela Road, construction of additional kennels has not been initiated by the engineering department despite the public health department providing the budget for it last year. We plan to double the capacity to accommodate 1,600 to 1,700 stray dogs for a few days after sterilisation,” an official from the veterinary department said.At the Bijwasan centre, the engineering department reportedly began work after nearly a year’s delay.“To expedite the ABC programme, construction of 14 additional dog kennels has now started at the Bijwasan sterilisation centre run by NGO Friendicoes SECA. The facility currently has a capacity of 550–600 dogs. After expansion, around 550 more stray dogs can be accommodated, enabling sterilisation and immunisation of over 1,000 dogs per month,” another MCD official said.Similarly, progress on installing boards at 735 designated dog-feeding points in the city remains incomplete. On microchipping of stray dogs, the veterinary department plans to initiate the tendering process in the current financial year, for which Rs 20 crore has been allocated. Earlier, funds were limited to sterilisation drives, officials said.Sources, though, indicated that such inter-departmental coordination issues are not new. During efforts to address the pigeon menace in the city, similar delays were observed in enforcement actions due to lack of coordination between the veterinary, public health and sanitation departments.The issue first came to the fore in June 2025 when a councillor raised concerns over pigeon feeding at public places during a standing committee meeting. Subsequently, MCD’s health department wrote to the veterinary department, highlighting the risk of diseases from pigeon droppings.However, the veterinary department stated it lacked the legal mandate to act, noting that pigeons are not classified as community animals. It later referred the matter to the sanitation or environment management services department, pointing out that the DMC Act empowers it to regulate cattle, dogs, horses and other quadrupeds, but does not cover birds such as pigeons. Action was eventually taken in Feb, when west and central zones cracked down on pigeon-feeding points.