India’s relationship with its street dogs has always been complex equal parts affection, fear, and frustration. Today, as cities like Delhi face an alarming crisis with the Supreme Court ordering relocation of strays to shelters, Kolkata too finds itself caught in the debate. But here, the story has a different twist.
Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh admits that Kolkata’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme runs on shoestring resources, with no central funds to fall back on. “We cannot sterilise 150 dogs a day like we need to, but we still manage around 30 daily,” he said. To him, this “limited but steady” pace is what has kept Kolkata safer than many other cities. Yet behind his words lies the reality of a city stretched thin.
The fear on the ground is palpable. Gariahat resident Kasturi Das still shudders when she recalls being bitten as a child while riding her cycle. “I was only 7 or 8. Since then, I panic whenever a dog comes near,” she said. Her story mirrors the silent worries of thousands for dog-bite cases in West Bengal have jumped from 23,000 in 2022 to a staggering 76,000 in 2024.
For advocate Sharma, these numbers were too alarming to ignore. When his RTI plea for official data went unanswered, he moved court. His petition is not about removing the animals but protecting them and people. “There are no feeding zones, no shelters, no government homes for strays here. My prayer is simple: sterilise, vaccinate, and let humans and animals live in balance,” he explained.
Yet even as responsibility is passed back and forth between KMC officials, the problem grows bigger. Stray dogs are not just statistics they are companions to some, a source of fear to others, and a test of how cities treat their most vulnerable.
Nowadays Kolkata’s limited efforts will soon overwhelm the city. An official involved with the SOP said it specifies designated feeding areas and times, acceptable food types and places responsibility for cleaning on caregivers, measures intended to reduce man-animal conflict and avoid dog bites.
