Stray animal management in urban India
Dr Ankit Shukla , Veterinary Assistant Surgeon , District Korba, Chhattisgarh
There is a proverb in villages in India “No cow is stray, everyone has a home” even if these words reflect the compassion and practices rooted in our culture, in modern world these words have become false. According to 20th livestock census India have 5 million stray cattle with a significant portion impacting urban landscape. Stray animal has become from minor nuisance to full-fledged national level concern particularly in urban India. From dogs roaming on the streets terrorizing the population to cows in roadways hampering traffic, the concerns regarding the stray and management of these animals have made government rethink about its policies regarding control of these animals. In this article we are going to discuss about the problems arising, legal framework present currently to required laws and certain suggestions to improve the problem.
Stray animal concerns:
Before going to the problems and their solution it is of utmost importance that we have to understand the reasons behind it. Stray animals have historically present since ancient times in our society. The stray animals in India primarily involves dogs, cattle, cats, but in recent monkeys have also wreaked havoc in cities. Let’s discuss about these animals one by one:
Dogs:
- Dogs played a major role of safe guarding the area during night time to cleaning the villages due to their scavenging habits. In ancient India they alerted villagers of impending wild animal attack which were very frequently in those days. But in modern times their roles have become obsolete.
- In today’s cities they are the most important rabies transmitters in humans. In 2024 alone there are 2195122 reported dog bite cases in India. This not only possess a public health emergency but also puts a load on government finances as requirement of Anti rabies vaccine have sky rocketed.
- Uncontrolled breeding had increased their population exponentially. As dogs are omnivores there is no food shortage in cities and they breed twice in a year.
- Control programs involving culling of these animals has faced major backlash from society and animal protection agency and since 1992 it has become illegal to kill stray animals. Animal birth programs had been in many states but they are not keeping up with the population growth.
Cattle:
- Cattle are backbone of Indian villages. From providing high quality protein in the form of milk to manure and labour in the fields they are considered as a family member in Indian society.
- In villages there is tradition of leaving cattle in pasture land during the day and in evening they return to their homes. Most of the cattle in cities today are roaming due to neglect of dairy farmers as they continue this practice even in cities
- Unproductive animals like old cows and bulls and abandoned to fend themselves.
- These cattle due to lack of pasture land tend to eat plastic and other nonedible things leading to their high mortality due to these.
- Lack of proper shelter compel these animals to sit in streets which hampers traffic. During night time due to low visibility accidents are frequent taking lives of both animals and humans.
- Excrement of cattle pose not only public health risk but also affect cleanliness drives in cities. Particularly in rainy season cow dung when mixed with rain creates slippery roads leading to accident.
- Due to religious sentiments cow slaughter is banned in most of the states in India which increase the problem.
- Cattle is also considered to be prominent source of methane, a green house gas which is responsible for global warming
Cat:
Cat are one of the few animals which have perfectly adapted to the urban scenario. Their agility and flexibility helps them to transverse the cities efficiently. When compared to other two cats are much less problematic as strays. They help to control rodents thus helping in public health control. But still due to their tendency to roam all over the city they tend to transmit certain disease like toxoplasmosis which affect humans and thus possess a risk.
Monkeys:
- Even though a wild animal, monkeys are now present in cities in much more population which can be considered as normal. Destruction of their natural habitats compelled them to move to the cities due to lack of food and protection
- Monkeys have a gregarious society and thus they can move in large groups. Highly aggressive to the area they tend to bite animals and humans which trespass their personal space, a thing occurring more and more in recent years.
- Monkeys also tend to harbour zoonotic agents like rabies and kyasanur forest disease which can transmit from monkeys to humans.
Control strategies and their drawbacks
- In 2024 Animal welfare board of India released a handbook for urban local bodies for proper control management of stray animals.
- Animal birth control programs have been established in many states. These programs are proving in adequate due to lack of funding to the NGOs, lack of man power and trained personnels and lack of widespread reach to both major and minor cities.
- Cattle are caught and kept in gaushalas in UP Chhattisgarh and other states but these tend to in adequate due to large population, lack of land, manpower and funding.
- Monkeys too are being caught and sent to wild but it is an extremely difficult job and they tend to come back. Population were made aware to not give food to these animals as they tend to associate humans with food which is dangerous.
- Highway patrolling and removing animals from roadways is being done but these too lack proper procedure and animals tend to just come back after few hours.
- States like Chhattisgarh have imposed penalties to the owner which leave their animals in streets to fend themselves but it has become increasingly difficult to track and prosecute them.
- Tagging program of animals was started in 20thlivestock census but could help track the owners of animals but ill intended owners cut tags, even ears of animals to avoid being tracked down by government and NGOs.
- Similar to dogs, sterilization programs for monkeys were launched in states like Himachal Pradesh. Kerela is also planning to begin sterilization of Bonnet Macaques.
Some suggestions for problem mitigation:
- Animal birth control program should be operated in nationwide scale in both small and large cities. An adequate man power with funding should be provided with proper equipments to control ever growing population. Kerela ABC program is a model reducing population upto 30% in some areas.
- People should be encouraged to adopt Indian dog breeds as they tend to be more loyal, less maintenance and tend to fall ill less. This will change the prospective of society towards stray dogs.
- Government should allot land and funding to catch and house stray cattle in over India. With the help of NGOs stray cattle in cities could be controlled. States like Chhattisgarh have started programs like Gau Dham project which aim to capture stray cattle from national highway and state highway and house them in gaushalas all over the state. Similar such program is also conducted in Uttar Pradesh too.
- Public awareness campaign regarding stray animals should be done to change their perspective and to educate them for emergencies and taking care of strays. They should also be made aware to not give food to wild animals as they gets dependent on humans for food.
- Shelter and medical care of stray animals should be made as a part of comprehensive program to uphold animal welfare sentiments in society.
- Effective waste management by municipalities can reduce food availability to the strays which in turn can help control their population.
- Fitting radium belts in stray cattle for visibility in night time should help curb accidents in roadways.
- Use of modern technologies and communication devices like apps to monitor and reporting of stray cattle can greatly help.
- Relocation and sterilization programs for monkeys should be done with extensive drive to protect forest coverage to provide a safe home to these relocated monkeys.
Conclusion:
Stray animal management in India is a mix of cultural reverence, modern concerns and practices and humane compassion. With ever increasing problem it is imperative that government bodies, NGOs and local population should work in conjugation to curb the strays. It can only be done by addressing root cause and making long term strategies and proper adherence to program .
