Rajasthan First State to Implement Supreme Court Directive on Stray Dogs

Rajasthan First to Implement Supreme Court Guidelines on Stray Dogs.

Rajasthan has become the first state to enforce the Supreme Court’s directions on stray dog management, issuing mandatory guidelines for all municipal bodies. Urban local bodies must file compliance reports within 30 days. Each city will set up centres for sterilisation, rabies vaccination, and deworming, with stray dogs to be treated, tagged, and released in their original localities.

The order mandates CCTV monitoring in operating theatres and ABC centres, while only trained teams will be authorised to catch dogs. No dog under six months of age can be sterilised.

Monitoring committees comprising NGOs and animal welfare workers will review the process, while records of sterilisation, vaccination, deaths, and feeding must be maintained. The Animal Welfare Board of India has fixed rates of ₹200 for catching a dog and ₹1,450 for sterilisation and post-operative care.

The move follows the Supreme Court’s recent observation that strays should not be indiscriminately confined in shelters but must be managed under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023 through sterilisation and vaccination.