Mumbai BMC yet to find site for shelter for stray dogs under Supreme Court order
Mumbai BMC yet to find site for shelter for stray dogs under Supreme Court order
Civic body now looking to procure land for shelter beyond city limits
The dog shelter will be built on a 3000-square-metre land parcel that the BMC plans to buy
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not yet succeeded in finding a location to construct or enable a shelter for street dogs to implement directives issued by the Supreme Court in November 2025 to seize and relocate street or community dogs from public places such as educational institutions, hospitals, stadiums, and railway stations.
The BMC plan
In April, the BMC floated a plan to construct a shelter for lifetime care of the relocated dogs. It floated an expression of interest for NGOs working in animal welfare to build and operate a shelter that can house at least 3000 such dogs and sought to identify eligible organisations. The shelter, which could be built on 3000 square metres of land that the BMC is willing to provide, was to be equipped with vets for round-the-clock medical care and would provide food to the animals.
The Supreme Court ordered in November 2025 that stray dogs be removed from public spaces. REPRESENTATION PIC/ISTOCK
What happens now?
With no takers yet for BMC’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to house community dogs, the civic body’s veterinary department is looking for land outside the city to relocate them. It is in the process of exploring two options:
>> BMC will purchase land outside the city and construct a shelter for strays
>> An NGO can come forward and take responsibility for these dogs, upon payment from BMC
Official Speak
A civic official associated with the project said, “The BMC is exploring options outside the city – in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region – to find and purchase land, and create the shelter. There are two ways forward: Operating a BMC-owned and operated shelter on BMC-owned land; or outsourcing the operation and maintenance of a shelter to NGOs who already are working in this field.”
Doggy digits
According to the 2024 animal census, Mumbai has 90,757 stray dogs, down from 95,172 recorded in 2014.