The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to file responses on a plea seeking directions to carry out regular sterilisation programmes for controlling the population of stray dogs and to prevent them from being afflicted by ‘rabies’.
A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V.K. Rao also asked Animal Welfare Board and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to file their response on the plea.
Dereliction of duties
The court was hearing a petition filed by non-government organisation Conference for Human Rights through its secretary general Nanita Sharma.
She said Delhi residents are adversely affected by inaction and dereliction of statutory duties on the part of the authorities, which is resulting in a rapid increase in the ‘stray dog’ population. The plea said the situation was worse in south Delhi localities, where incidence of dog bites had increased over the years.
Growing conflict
Ms. Sharma said she had noticed growing conflict between humans and canines, and between humans and humans on the issue of feeding stray dogs.
“Persons feeding were/are becoming victims of hostility and anger of those persons for whom stray dogs are a menace and who believe that feeding would make them stay where they are and they would multiply in their complexes or areas creating more nuisance for the residents,” the plea said.
She argued that ‘not feeding’ the canines was not the solution to the problem “but it was mainly the growing population of the canines that was making the humans panic and fearful of their race”.
The petition has sought direction to carry out census of stray dogs, once in every two or three years.
The petitioner also sought direction to display on the government’s website the number of stray dogs “sterilised” in a particular sterilisation programme undertaken by civic agencies.
SDMC data
It has sought a direction by the court to the SDMC to show collective data on the dog population under its area and the number of dog sterilisation centres functioning under it.