The Calcutta High Court on Thursday asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation to submit reports on dog sterilisation programmes in Kolkata and Bidhannagar areas within four weeks.
Hearing a PIL filed by advocate Akash Sharma, a division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De also sought a response from the state government.
Sharma had filed a public interest litigation seeking urgent action to curb street dog menace in the city.
"The unchecked rise in dog-bite cases signals a systemic failure in implementing the ABC Rules, 2023. We expect the authorities to act with urgency and compassion to ensure humane population control and public safety," Sharma told My Kolkata on Thursday evening.
The advocate alleged that the civic authorities of Kolkata and Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) have failed to implement the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, on systematic sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs.
The PIL urged the high court to direct the state government to launch mass sterilisation and vaccination programmes, designated feeding zones and state-run shelters for strays.
The PIL came after the Supreme Court ordered stray dogs in Delhi and the national capital region be removed to shelters within eight weeks. The order had sparked widespread outrage among dog lovers and animal rights activists.
The state’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) data shows 76,486 dog bite cases in Bengal in 2024 and 10,264 cases in January this year alone. One suspected rabies death was reported in 2024.
“There are no feeding zones, no shelter, no government-run homes for strays in Bengal. In 2022, there were 23,000 cases of dog bites in the state, which rose to 48,000 in 2023 and 76,000 in 2024. This shows something needs to be done,” Sharma had told My Kolkata last week.
The PIL does not seek elimination of stray dogs, but rather humane control of the population through sterilisation, vaccination, immunisation and deworming as required by rules, Sharma clarified.
While the department of urban development and municipal affairs and the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation attended the hearing, other respondents including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Howrah Municipal Corporation were absent.
The next hearing is on September 18.