How A Humane Law On Dogs Went To Dogs In Telangana

Just to put the Supreme Court case on stray dogs in context, as hearings went on, news has been filtering out from Telangana that more than 1,000 strays were killed across the state. The mass killing was not the act of madmen unable to tell right from wrong. This was the outcome of politics at its worst, and perpetrators getting away because laws meant to deter and punish such cruelty are ineffective.Armed with newfound political power following their victory in the gram panchayat elections held in Dec 2025, a group of sarpanches in the state started a covert campaign of mass killings. ‘Specialists’, as locals in Telangana villages dub them, were brought in from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. These ‘specialists’ injected stray dogs with a small dose of gaddi mandu – a lethal agricultural chemical that helps destroy wild overgrowth (its primary chemical is paraquat dichloride).Sarpanches had promised to reduce numbers of stray dogs (also of monkeys) if voted to power. Monkeys are difficult to tackle, but dogs are easy to trap and terminate.So the netas thought it best to take this instant, cheaper route to voter appeasement – locals say it costs not more than Rs 100 to Rs 500 to kill a dog – rather than go through the ethical and law-mandated process of taking up animal birth control (ABC) programmes.Although it is difficult to tell sarpanches of which party did most of the killing, it is quite clear there is no political will to prosecute them. This makes the culling of free-roaming dogs effectively a state-enabled campaign, spearheaded by elected representatives who are clear they will not take any notice of a national law, one which SC only recently reiterated as the guiding principle to all approaches to controlling stray population.That a large section of their electorate was ill-informed about the goings-on in SC, became a convenient weapon for the sarpanches. Locals allege that many deliberately misinterpreted the top court’s observations on removing strays from public institutions – there’s no ruling on this as yet, the final case is being heard – to justify their actions.Although the local police across five districts have registered cases against close to a dozen sarpanches, along with other individuals, the chances of any of them doing jail time are very slim. Also, the last thing Congress-led Telangana govt wants to do now is to arrest newly elected representatives.All of the accused are booked under BNS Section 325 that deals with killing, poisoning, maiming, or rendering any animal useless, crimes that attract up to five years in prison, and also under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. But they were all handed station bail, as is the practice with punishment under seven years of jail. Their files are stuck at the forensics stage. To hazard a guess as to just when these reports will be released, and when a chargesheet will be filed – if at all – pinning them to the crime, is tougher than predicting the weather.Then there’s bad data being tomtommed as evidence. Per a recent RTI response, Telangana recorded over 14.9L dog-bite cases over the last five years. But, as has been widely reported, what is recorded as “dog bites”, for one, includes bites by monkeys, rats and other animals. Moreover, it isn’t “bites” that are recorded, but rabies shots dispensed, which also include preventive shots taken by those who handle animals. Experts have repeatedly pointed out that all dog bite statistics are inflated.Experts have also emphasised that ABC remains the only scientific – and humane – approach to stabilising stray dog population. Mass killings can’t be a solution. The state must take responsibility. What needs acceleration is the pace of sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs under ABC programmes and better budgets for municipalities and gram panchayats to execute it.Currently, Telangana conducts roughly 10,000 sterilisation surgeries annually – a grossly inadequate figure, given the state’s stray dog population of roughly 15L, per estimates by animal rights groups.Take the case of Hyderabad, where a substantial number of stray dogs remain unsterilised and unvaccinated, per recent reports. But neither state govt nor municipalities have stepped up ABC efforts.What is needed is clear, as it is in every Indian state – recruitment of more trained personnel, sustained, institutionalised partnerships with animal welfare organisations, and more animal shelters, particularly in rural areas.Activists fear, minus state action, the mass killing may continue in Telangana’s villages.