SC on Stray Dogs: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its ruling on a previous bench’s verdict ordering the relocation of stray dogs in Delhi-NCR within eight weeks in the interest of public safety.

In Hapur, municipal officials have already begun a campaign to capture stray dogs in the city. On the first day, the municipal team and the contractor’s team jointly carried out operations in several localities, including Gandhi Vihar, and caught 15 dogs.

Earlier, on August 11, a bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan had directed authorities to begin moving stray dogs from the streets to shelters, starting with a facility to house 5,000 dogs.

According to Jagran.com, the Hapur campaign is being carried out under a tender issued months ago for dog sterilisation and monkey capture. While a team from Mathura initially trapped some monkeys, that drive eventually failed when the animals stopped entering cages. The dog sterilisation project had not started until now, leading to hundreds of bite cases every day.

On Wednesday, when teams arrived to catch the dogs, most fled, making the operation challenging. Only 15 could be captured despite significant effort.

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About six months ago, the municipal authorities had issued a tender for the sterilisation of dogs and the capture of monkeys. A team from Mathura came to trap the monkeys, but after a few days, the monkeys stopped entering the cages, and the campaign was halted. Meanwhile, the dog-catching and sterilisation programme was never initiated, leading to hundreds of dog bite cases every day. This prompted residents and councillors to repeatedly demand action from the municipal authorities.

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Temporary Hospital For Dogs

The Nagar Palika has set up a temporary hospital in its night shelter near the private bus stand on Delhi Road to sterilise and house the captured dogs until they recover. The 15 caught on the first day have already been shifted there.

“The campaign to catch dogs has been launched on the basis of the tender that was issued earlier. The next campaign will be launched depending on whatever order is received from the government level on the order of the Supreme Court,” said Sanjay Kumar Mishra, EO, Nagar Palika Hapur.