"India Portrayed In Bad Light": Supreme Court Raps States On Stray Dogs Case

The Supreme Court rapped state governments Monday for not filing affidavits to confirm compliance with its August order to catch, neuter, and release stray dogs across the country.

An irate court observed multiple stray dog attacks had been reported since its order.

Last month, for example, a child was attacked in Pune in Maharashtra and, days earlier, another young girl was attacked, this time by a pack of 20 dogs in the state's Bhandara district.

And last week in Kerala, in an ironic twist, a man performing in a street play - about stray dogs -in Kannur district was attacked. Attacks have also been reported from Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, where a family of three was bitten, and from Warangal in Telangana over the past 48 hours.

"Yet no reply (has come) from state governments. Your country is being portrayed in a bad light internationally!" a furious top court said, "Two months granted... yet no response!"

The court then sought an explanation from all state and union territory governments.

"Don't you read newspapers? The order passed on August 22 was widely reported... all chief secretaries from all states to remain personally present in court and explain delay."

The court noted only Bengal and Telangana, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, had filed replies, though even these were not on record since they were filed over the Diwali break.

The Delhi government has not filed an affidavit, a three-judge special bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta, and Justice NV Anjaria, said, prompting another sharp rebuke.

"MCD has filed a reply, but the Delhi government has not?"

Meanwhile, one of the states that has begun to implement the order is Rajasthan.

The Department of Autonomous Governance issued strict instructions to all municipal corporations, councils, and municipalities, making compliance with those orders mandatory.

Under this, feeding points are to be marked in every ward and locality, with urban bodies directed to coordinate with resident welfare associations and animal welfare organisations. Stray dogs will be treated, sterilised, tagged, and then released in the same locality.

And last month officials in Noida in the Delhi-NCR region launched a survey to map and monitor the population of stray dogs across the city, aiming to improve sterilisation, vaccination and management efforts, officials said. Resident welfare associations, apartment owners' associations, and animal welfare non-profits were asked to submit reports, with photographs, identifying sterilised, unsterilised, aggressive and rabies-suspect dogs in their areas.

Down south, meanwhile, by mid-September the Greater Chennai Corporation had stepped up its stray dog control measures in line with the Supreme Court's order. By September 15 the GCC had vaccinated 46,122 dogs against rabies. Additionally, it had also microchipped over 12,000 dogs for identification and geo-mapped them to track sterilisation and vaccination status.

In its August 22 order the court had modified an order passed 11 days earlier.

The court said stray dogs must be released to the areas they were picked up from, but only after sterilisation and immunisation. The exception was for animals infected with rabies or exhibiting aggressive behaviour. The Animal Birth Control rules are to be followed for now, the court said.

The ABC rules are meant to control the stray dog population and say collected animals must be returned to their home territory after sterilisation.

The court had earlier ordered the rounding up of all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR area. That order followed increased attacks on men, women, and even children. But, amid pushback from animal activists, the court decided to revisit the issue and reserved its earlier verdict.