In New Delhi, a coalition of animal rights advocates, legal specialists, and grassroots workers gathered on Friday to raise a collective alarm. They fear a recent Supreme Court directive is systematically weakening the newly established Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules of 2023.
Core Philosophy Versus Court Directive
The meeting, organized by Compassionate Citizens of India, centered on the court's order for the removal of stray dogs from public spaces. Ekta Jain, an animal rights practitioner, argued that this mandate for mandatory removal directly contradicts the fundamental principle of the 2023 rules. She emphasized that the rules are built on a humane, proven model: catch, neuter, vaccinate, and return (CNVR) dogs to their original locations.
"Forced relocation doesn't just harm the animals; it unravels decades of established policy and on-ground practice," Jain stated. The panelists unanimously stressed that the focus must remain on the effective execution of the 2023 framework. They warned that a blanket removal of "community dogs" from their territories would not solve the problem but would instead aggravate human-dog conflicts by disrupting stable packs and creating new territorial voids.
Alleged Overreach and Administrative Hurdles
A significant point of criticism was the role of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). While legally an advisory body, activists accused it of overstepping its mandate by interfering in municipal tenders and issuing directives that disrupt local birth control programs.
They presented a stark example: the board recently asked nearly 3,600 animal welfare organizations across the country to renew their licenses. However, it has granted approval to only about 75 of them. This bottleneck has brought sterilization and vaccination drives to a near standstill in many areas.
Further complicating the scenario is the complexity of the rules themselves. The panel noted that frequent procedural changes and a lack of administrative clarity have led to widespread non-compliance, especially in major Indian cities, hampering the program's national rollout.
A Call for Coexistence and Practical Solutions
Researcher Sindhoor Pangal placed the debate in a deep historical context, speaking of a 40,000-year-long shared evolution and coexistence between humans and dogs. She questioned the rationale behind "abrupt" judicial and state interventions that risk disrupting this ancient balance without addressing root causes.
On a practical level, infrastructure challenges were highlighted. Udit Bhatia, director of the Megafauna Welfare Foundation, pointed out that metros like Delhi lack both the financial resources and physical space to build and maintain sufficient birth control centers to house removed dogs indefinitely.
Echoing this concern, animal rights petitioner Pallavi Sachin said shelters have a limited chance of success. She urged governments to redirect efforts towards enforcing the standard operating procedures that have been refined under the ABC framework over the past twenty years, rather than pursuing large-scale removal.
The consensus from the meeting was clear: the path forward lies in strengthening and faithfully implementing the humane ABC Rules of 2023, not in reverting to removal methods that activists believe are counterproductive and inhumane.
