ISLAMABAD: As part of a campaign to clean up the mega-city before it hosts next month’s G20 summit, India’s capital will catch, sterilize, and hide thousands of stray dogs roaming its streets.
The municipal government of New Delhi plans to use nets to trap the canines from dozens of locations, including around boutique hotels and some of the city’s most impressive monuments and tourist hotspots, such as the 17th-century Red Fort.
On Thursday, authorities directed city employees to begin rounding up dogs for transport to local animal sterilization centers “due to the G20 summit.”
The order stated, “All stray dogs picked up from these locations shall be kept… for their further care and feeding till the program is over.”
Since India assumed the G20 presidency last year, the Delhi metropolitan area, home to around 30 million people, has been on an intense beautification drive. Authorities have cleared illegal slums near summit venues and revamped major arterial routes on the city’s gridlocked roads ahead of September’s summit, which will host the leaders of the world’s top economies.
According to India’s Livestock Census of 2012, the most recent available government figures, more than 60,000 stray dogs live on Delhi’s streets. Local authorities have regularly employed sterilization campaigns to keep the canine population in check, though dog packs remain present in parks and residential neighborhoods around the city.
Mohammad Irfan, a shopkeeper based near the city’s Jama Masjid mosque, told AFP, “These government people take them away to do sterilization then bring them back again. They don’t have a permanent solution.”
Beloved Strays
Despite lacking formal owners, many of Delhi’s strays are beloved by their adopted neighborhoods, with some dogs wearing special canine jackets to keep warm during the city’s harsh winters.
However, they also pose a hazard to humans, with local media regularly reporting on aggressive dog packs mauling young children across the country.
In 2018, angry villagers in Uttar Pradesh state killed 13 stray dogs after three children under the age of 12 were mauled to death on the same day.
India reports roughly 17 million dog bites each year, and the World Health Organization states that nearly 20,000 people nationwide die of rabies annually.
According to Meet Ashar of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Delhi’s relocation plan risks dangerously agitating the dogs. He told AFP, “They are not used to being handled and picked up with nets and being transported. The next time they are approached by a human being, perhaps they could react in a defensive manner out of fear.”
