Stray Dogs: The Lawful Route
If dogs near you are a genuine problem, there is a legal process and it works better than the alternatives. Here is what the rules allow and who to contact.
Last checked 2026-08-07
What the rules actually say
- The Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 were notified on 10 March 2023 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, and they place street dog population control on your municipal corporation.
- The method the Rules set out is sterilisation and anti rabies vaccination. Rule 11 states that dogs shall be released at the same place or locality from where they were captured, with a V shaped notch on the right ear marking a dog already done.
- Removing community dogs from a locality and leaving them elsewhere therefore sits outside what the Rules provide for. A complaint asking for removal tends to stall, while a complaint asking for sterilisation is something the corporation is required to act on.
- Rule 15 permits euthanasia only for dogs that are incurably ill or mortally wounded, diagnosed by a team appointed by the Local Animal Birth Control Monitoring Committee.
- Rule 16 covers dog bites and suspected rabies. The local authority may run an Animal Helpline and an Animal Complaint Cell, and a dog suspected of rabies is captured humanely, kept under observation, and examined by a veterinary surgeon together with an animal welfare representative.
- In a circular on its own site, the Animal Welfare Board of India states that the Supreme Court, in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 2025, delivered a judgment on 19 May 2026 directing States and Union Territories to implement the ABC programme in a time bound way, including at least one fully functional Animal Birth Control Centre in every district and uninterrupted availability of anti rabies vaccine in government health facilities.
How to raise it
- Write down the specifics first. Which corner, which dog, what happened, on what date. A general complaint about dogs is hard for anyone to act on.
- If anyone has been bitten, get them to a government hospital or health centre for anti rabies treatment the same day. Rule 16 requires dog bite information to be shared promptly with the government medical hospital so post bite treatment can be recommended.
- Lodge the complaint in writing with your municipal body, through its grievance portal or its veterinary section, and ask for sterilisation and anti rabies vaccination in your locality under the ABC Rules 2023. Keep the complaint number.
- Ask your RWA or apartment owners association to send the same request on society letterhead. A registered association asking for an ABC drive usually gets further than a single flat.
- Where the argument inside your building is between residents and someone feeding the dogs, ask for the Animal Welfare Committee under Rule 20 to be constituted. It is built for exactly this. It includes the Chief Veterinary Officer, a police representative, a district SPCA or State Board representative and the complainant, and its decision on feeding points is final, subject to appeal to the State Board.
- If nothing moves, escalate to the State Animal Birth Control Monitoring Committee and to the Animal Welfare Board of India, which publishes a guideline titled Implementation of ABC rules 2023, Guideline for Local Bodies, RWAs and AOAs dated 17.07.2025 on awbi.gov.in and lists its office number as 0129 2555700.
- Do not arrange for dogs to be picked up and dropped somewhere else, and do not pay anyone to do it. Rule 11 requires captured dogs to be released back where they were caught, so that route creates a legal problem for you and changes nothing on the ground.
Your municipality
Most of the numbers below are general civic helplines rather than a dedicated animal desk, and each note says which is which. Only a few corporations publish an animal specific route.
The site at bbmp.gov.in now serves the Greater Bengaluru Authority, which names five constituent city corporations. Its footer lists a toll free number of 1533 and an email of comm@bbmp.gov.in, and its citizen grievance route is labelled SAHAAYA 2.0. The number is a general civic line rather than a veterinary one. The site carries a notification about implementing Supreme Court directions in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 2025 within institutional areas of the five city corporations.
We could not reach the Municipal Corporation's own website from outside India, so we have left its address and phone empty rather than publish anything unconfirmed. The Chandigarh Administration's own site at chandigarh.gov.in links the national public grievance portal for complaints, and its helpline page lists SPCA hospital on 2696450 and office on 2696491, printed without an area code.
The corporation states that stray dogs are caught based on public complaints and identified hotspot areas, taken to Animal Birth Control centres where they are sterilised and immunised against rabies, and then released to the same area from where they were caught as per the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023. It publishes contacts for five ABC centre zone in charges at chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/veterinary/contact/abccenters, covering Pulianthope, Lloyds Colony, Kannammapet, Meenambakkam and Sholinganallur. The general complaint number is 1913, with a WhatsApp chatbot on 94450 61913.
The corporation publishes three office numbers, 0422 239 0261 to 0263, and a WhatsApp grievance number, 81900 00200, which is the working online channel. The grievance link printed on the site did not resolve when we checked, so we have left the portal field empty and would use WhatsApp or the office numbers instead. No veterinary or ABC number is published.
The corporation lists 155305 as its Citizen's Call Center and points complaints to its MCD311 platform, linked from the portal's own helpline menu. Both are general civic channels, and no veterinary or ABC phone number is published. The corporation's Citizen Charter names a Veterinary Services Department. New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board are separate bodies covering their own areas.
The corporation lists 1800 180 1817 as a 24x7 helpline and routes its grievance menu to services.gmda.gov.in. Both are general civic channels, and no veterinary or animal husbandry office appears in the published directory. The corporation publishes an office order on the registration, control and regulation of pet dogs, which concerns owned pets rather than community dog sterilisation.
The corporation's published contact directory lists Dr. Uttam Yadav as Officer in Charge on this number, with allocated departments the corporation itself labels as Zoo, Dog Eradication and Meat Unit. That label is the corporation's own English rendering on its own site. This is an individual officer's mobile from a staff directory rather than a departmental helpline, so it may change on transfer. The corporation also publishes the Indore 311 app as its grievance channel and a dead animal line on 0731 253 5555.
The corporation lists 0141 274 7400 as its call centre and public grievance registration line and 0141 274 2900 as its control room, and publishes Samadhan as its online complaint route. These are general civic channels, and no veterinary or ABC number is published. Nagar Nigam Jaipur Heritage is a separate body covering the older city, and we could not locate its official site.
The corporation publishes its main office number and routes public grievances through the Kerala citizen service portal. Its directory lists a Health Officer on 94469 46694 and an Assistant Health Officer on 94956 31502. No veterinary or ABC number is published. The corporation has published a dog shelter design competition page carrying an AWBI dog shelter SOP document.
The corporation publishes a toll free number and a control room on 033 2286 1212, 1313 and 1414, along with a grievance redressal page. These are general civic channels, and no veterinary number is published. The corporation also runs an online pet dog registration application, which covers owned pets rather than community dogs.
The corporation is the only body in this set whose own site carries a dedicated Animal Welfare Department section, published in Hindi as Pashu Kalyan Vibhag. Its control room is 1533 toll free, with 92199 02911 to 92199 02914 for WhatsApp and calling, and its complaint registration link sits in the site menu. Its telephone directory lists a Veterinary Welfare Officer at headquarters on 88107 29191, which is a staff desk line rather than a public helpline.
The corporation runs a Veterinary Health Department site on its own domain, and its About page states the department's aim is to catch, sterilise and vaccinate the dogs on Mumbai's roads. Its online grievance form lists Dog Sterilization, Dog Vaccination, Dog Bite, Suspected Rabid Dog and cat equivalents as categories, so a sterilisation request can be lodged directly. The department also publishes guidelines addressed to pet and street dog owners, community animal feeders, RWAs and apartment owner associations. The BMC main portal separately lists a 24 hour civic helpline on 1916.
The corporation's grievance form is the confirmed route for a written complaint. Its published department list covers twelve departments including Health, with no separate veterinary department, and no ABC page or veterinary number appears on the site, so route the request through the Health department via the grievance form.
We could not reach the Authority's own website from outside India, so we have left its address and phone empty rather than publish anything unconfirmed. The Uttar Pradesh Government's Jansunwai Samadhan portal is the state's integrated grievance system and is the confirmed route for a written complaint. Which body operates the ABC programme locally is worth confirming by phone before you write.
The clearest municipal page on this subject anywhere in the set. The corporation states that dogs are caught, sterilised, vaccinated against rabies, notched on the right ear and released back to the place where they were captured within five days, and that by law dogs must be returned to the location from which they were picked up. It lists, as legal offences under the Animal Birth Control Act 2023, removing lactating female dogs and their puppies, removing puppies under six months, removing sterilised dogs again, transferring dogs from one place to another, and relocating dogs outside city limits. Veterinary Section numbers are 020 2550 1236 and 020 2550 1237, with PMC Care on 1800 1030 222 and WhatsApp or SMS on 96899 00002.
Questions people ask
Can street dogs be removed from my area in India?
Not permanently. The Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 require that dogs caught for sterilisation are released back into the same area they were taken from. Relocating community dogs outside an area is not permitted under those Rules, and Pune's municipal corporation publishes that doing so is an offence.
How do I complain about stray dogs lawfully?
Through your municipal corporation's Animal Birth Control programme, which sterilises and vaccinates and returns the dog to the same spot. Rule 16 of the ABC Rules 2023 provides for an Animal Complaint Cell to receive concerns of this kind.
What if there is a conflict between residents and someone feeding street dogs?
Rule 20 of the ABC Rules 2023 provides for an Animal Welfare Committee to resolve exactly that dispute, and places responsibility for arranging feeding at agreed spots on the residents' association. Agreeing a fixed place and time is usually faster than escalating.
What happens after I report a stray dog?
The municipal ABC contractor catches, sterilises, vaccinates and ear notches the dog, then returns it. Pune publishes a five day turnaround. An ear notch means the dog is already done, so reporting it again achieves nothing.
Is a dog bite handled differently?
Yes. Get medical treatment first, because rabies post exposure treatment is time sensitive. Report the bite to the municipal health department, which is a different route from a general ABC complaint.
Where this sits in the law
The ABC Rules are one part of a picture that includes the PCA Act, municipal bye-laws that were never updated to match, and live Supreme Court proceedings.
If the problem is at your own door
Plenty of people arrive here because a pack has settled near the gate their own dog has to walk past. Relocation is not lawful and feeding disputes rarely end well. Reducing the number of trips out is the part you actually control, and an indoor coir pad is how.
SniffSociety makes the coir pad. Everything else on this page is free and always will be.