On 3rd August 2023, Delhi woke up to the rude shock of a circular by Dy. Director (VS) RCP with the subject line, “Action Plan for the removal of the stray dogs from the vicinity of prominent locations in view of the G-20 summit”. Along with this, a list of 50 areas was drawn up from where the ‘un-neutered’ strays were supposed to be picked up and kept in the suggested ABC shelters for some time.
The un-stated reality in the circular was the threat that the roads in these named areas would be rid of strays till the summit was over, to present the image of clean roads, bereft of strays wandering around. This was the obvious intent because no one would really be able to make a running distinction between neutered and un-neutered strays. The notification was done in a way that no law would be seen to be broken, a bit like tax avoidance.
A further circular dated 4th August 2023 gave more clarity. It stated that the drive to pick up the strays would be done till end August 2023 and the Strays would be released back into their natural habitat after the G-20 summit was over.
These two circulars raised the heckles of the entire Delhi community looking after strays across various locations. In a swift move, this group got together, thanks to social media, and organized itself with massive protests, terming the entire operation surreptitious and illegal. Such was the force of these protests that took the form of formal registering of protests, and informal social media led campaigns that, within a day, the entire action plan was withdrawn vide a circular dated 5th August 2023 with the words, “circular/action plan issued by this office dated 4th August 2023 regarding picking up of stray dogs from the vicinity of prominent locations of Delhi in view of G-20 summit is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect”.
One major positive side effect of this ludicrous notification was the coming together of all strays’ care givers in one single group, planning and acting together using WhatsApp groups and other mechanisms. People are now privy to the list of area wise care givers. A number of strategies could be identified to identify the strays and even track their locations using mechanisms like GPS trackable chips so that, if such a contingency were to arise, at least the strays could be identified and brought back to their original locations.
One marvels at the lack of a critical thinking process of decision makers in the government and these administrative bodies. It would serve them well to take planned decisions in collaboration with local care givers to manage sterilization drives instead of such knee jerk reactions.
