For generations, street dogs in India lived quietly alongside humans, surviving on leftovers and tolerated as part of everyday life. In villages, a dog might receive a piece of chapati or a bowl of milk and spend the rest of the day scavenging near homes. This informal coexistence worked for centuries. But in modern Indian cities, this relationship is changing rapidly, and the consequences are becoming increasingly visible.
India today has an estimated 60 million free-ranging street dogs, a figure that may be higher given rapid urban expansion. Delhi alone is believed to host nearly one million street dogs. At the same time, India accounts for more than one-third of global rabies deaths, making dog bites a serious public health concern. As cities grow denser and more unequal, dogs are no longer just scavengers. Many are now becoming territorial defenders of specific streets, buildings and people.
Unlike Western countries, India does not allow the culling of street dogs. Laws and cultural norms require dogs to be caught, sterilised, vaccinated and then returned to the exact area where they were found. The idea behind this policy is that dogs protect their territory from newcomers, keeping populations stable. In reality, these rules are often poorly implemented, leaving cities struggling to manage rising dog-human conflicts.
The issue reached a national flashpoint in August 2025 after several children were attacked by street dogs in the Delhi region. The Supreme Court briefly ordered all street dogs in Delhi and surrounding areas to be removed and placed in shelters, promising dog-free streets for the first time in decades. The order was impossible to implement due to the lack of shelter capacity and sparked intense protests from animal welfare groups. Within two days, the court reversed its decision and restored the sterilisation-based approach.
Subsequent court rulings attempted a middle path. In November 2025, authorities were directed to remove dogs from schools, hospitals and public transport zones across the country, restrict public feeding and encourage fencing to prevent dog entry. On January 7, 2026, the court went further, ordering all of India’s 1.5 million schools and colleges to be fenced and secured against dogs within eight weeks. Critics argue that this timeline ignores infrastructure realities and is unlikely to significantly reduce dog bites or rabies cases.
At the heart of the problem lies a deeper evolutionary and social relationship. Dogs are the only vertebrate species that followed humans out of Africa and adapted to every environment alongside them. Over thousands of years, they evolved to read human cues and form strong attachments to people and places. In Indian cities, where dogs are unowned but heavily fed, this attachment expresses itself as territorial behaviour.
Research in Delhi shows that street dogs often organise themselves into packs around specific households. A small number of dedicated feeders can meet nearly all their nutritional needs, allowing dog populations to grow denser than scavenging alone would permit. These dogs begin to associate safety and food with particular humans and spaces, defending them from perceived threats.
This behaviour clashes with the realities of Indian urban life. Streets are shared spaces used day and night by workers, waste pickers, delivery staff and commuters. Dogs are most territorial at night, when many feeders are asleep. Barking, chasing and sometimes biting become defensive responses, unintentionally reinforced by daytime feeding. While feeders see affection and loyalty, others experience fear and injury.
The backlash against recent court orders reflects a deeper cultural divide. Some citizens value India’s long tradition of living alongside animals, while others demand safer, fully controlled urban spaces. Western cities resolved this conflict long ago through widespread removal of street dogs. India’s diversity, legal structure and moral frameworks make such consensus far more difficult.
Experts suggest India may be reaching a tipping point. While millions still feed street dogs daily, the risks are becoming harder to ignore. The same dog that is gentle with familiar faces may aggressively defend its territory against strangers. This is not random violence, but a predictable outcome of intensified human-animal intimacy in crowded cities.