Leading public figures, citizens and activists from across India will stage protests on Sunday, Jan 4, to protest the recent Supreme Court directions ordering mass removal of stray dogs and confining them in large shelters.
The demonstrators will come under the banner ‘Do or Die’, which evokes the Indian freedom movement, “for a peaceful, coordinated protest calling for evidence-based, lawful, and humane policy on community dogs”. The gatherings will be held across 31 cities, including New Delhi, Kolkata Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.
The Delhi gathering will start at 1pm at Jantar Mantar. A strong participation is expected from the cultural and creative community, with Mohit Chauhan and Rahul Ram performing.
In Kolkata, protesters will meet in front of Academy of Fine Arts at 2 pm on Sunday. Protests have been held in the city in response to the Supreme Coury judgments since last year. Many protesters came together with the slogan “No Dog No Vote”, and this is rallying cry for the protests tomorrow in the city as well. Many activists, including actress Sreelekha Mitra, will be part of the protests in Kolkata.
Shelter fear
The recommended shelter for stray dogs is leading to much concern. Dancer Mallika Sarabhai has in a social media post urged everyone to join the protests, “ …The (Supreme Court) judgment wants…to build big facilities where millions of dogs will be shoved in. This has no basis in science, this has no basis in humanity…”
“The real, humane solution lies in systematic sterilisation and vaccination, with both the
central and state governments taking full responsibility for its implementation,” said a co-host of the protests in Kolkata, Rajkumar Singh.
“The mobilisation follows a period of escalating fear and confusion triggered by misinformation and alarmist reporting, which shaped public narrative and policy response before verified facts could be examined,” claims a statement from the collective India 4 Animals @india4animals.
“In particular, the media report that led to the current suo motu proceedings was based on incorrect attribution of a child’s tragic death to rabies, a claim later contradicted by official records. Despite this correction, the initial misinformation became the emotional and political foundation for sweeping directions affecting millions of animals and people,” it adds.
Supreme Court prescriptions
On August 11, 2025, acting on a media report, a two-judge apex court bench had directed the mass removal of all stray dogs from the Delhi-NCR area and relocate them to shelters within eight weeks. On August 22, 2025, a three-judge bench of the court acknowledged that a mass removal was “too harsh” and kept the previous direction “in abeyance”.
On November 7, 2025, the court directed that stray dogs must be removed from “institutional areas”, such as schools, colleges, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots, bus stands and railway stations, as they required special preventive measures. The dogs found within these premises have to be removed, sterilised and vaccinated according to the Animal Birth Control rules, to be shifted to a designated shelter thereafter and not to be returned to the original location.
This was followed by widespread reaction from public health experts and veterinarians, who warned of the consequences of such decisions. “Mass removal and confinement of community dogs are unscientific, undermine rabies-control efforts, destabilise urban ecosystems, and disproportionately impact low-income and underserved communities,” says the India 4 Animals statement.
An open letter was signed by over 2,000 citizens across India, who included public figures such as Mira Nair, Swara Bhaskar, Mark Tully and Dadi Padamjee and leading professionals, expressed their concerns about the proposed mega-shelter model. The signatories feel that such an institution may pose severe “public-health risks, ecological disruption, and a financial burden running into thousands of crores, with no evidence that the policy will improve public safety”, the statement says.
Vaccine vacuum
Experts also feel that Animal Birth Control rules with Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ABC-ARV / CNVR) have never been implemented at the scale that is required for them to have the required effect on people in most states. Government statements in affidavits show that the coverage is far below global standards.
The gatherings tomorrow will make three man demands:
1. An immediate stay on the current directions on mass removal and confinement of stray dogs.
2. “Meaningful” hearings before the Supreme Court in the presence of veterinarians, epidemiologists, public-health experts, ecologists, and animal-behaviour scientists.
3. A return to evidence-based governance, centred on proper funding, monitoring and implementation of ABC-ARV.
Kolkata protest
In Kolkata, activists are gearing up for the protest.
“This protest is a response to a court order that puts community animals at risk. While countries across the world are teaching children compassion and coexistence with community animals, we in India appear to be taking a step backwards,” said Sreelekha Mitra to The Plurals.
“After 16 years of working for Kolkata’s street dogs, this is the most distressing moment we have faced. Animal workers and feeders across the city are uniting to push back against a situation that threatens their lives,” said Anabil Chakraborty, one of the organisers of the protest.
The co-host of the protests Singh spoke about the right to life for all beings. “I am joining this nationwide protest, in Kolkata, because the recent judgment goes against the spirit of our Constitution, which upholds the right to life for all beings — humans and street animals alike. Relocation and sheltering are not solutions,” he said.
In November, 2025, Atin Ghosh, Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s deputy mayor and member, mayor in council in charge of health, had announced plans for a new, larger stray dog shelter at Dhapa and started initiatives for ward-wise vaccination and sterilisation camps. The proposed shelter will accommodate 3,000 to 4,000 dogs, a marked increase from its present capacity of about 300, Kolkata Municipal Corporation said.