Even as the Supreme Court on Tuesday reiterated its November 2025 directions mandating the removal of stray dogs from institutional areas, the Capital does not have a single permanent dog shelter, has no reliable count of strays in the spaces covered by the order, and has moved at a crawl on capacity expansion since the first directions were issued, stakeholders and several senior officials told HT.Stray dogs that were abandoned on the streets rest at a shelter (AP)The court’s order applies only to institutional areas — schools, hospitals, sports complexes, railway stations and bus depots — not to residential areas or streets. Removal can only be carried out by municipal authorities following due process, not by private individuals.Dog shelters in DelhiDelhi’s first permanent shelter for aggressive dogs — estimated to cost ₹3.5 crore, designed to house 1,500 animals — is planned for Dwarka Sector 29 but remains on paper. A senior municipal official, who asked not to be name, said funds had only recently been cleared. “It may still take six to eight months to develop the Dwarka facility. Currently, we don’t have any space to keep dogs permanently as ABC centres are only meant for sterilisation and observation,” the official said.Plans to scale up sterilisation infrastructure — with new centres in Bijwasan, Bela Road, Usmanpur and two locations in Rohini — have also been held up by inter-departmental delays.A second MCD official said the agency plans to double the capacity to accommodate 1,600 to 1,700 stray dogs at the Bijwasan centre, which will be used for expansion of sterilisation programme and keeping dogs under observation.“The projects will be expedited, now that the Supreme Court has reiterated its order,” the official added. ₹110 per dog per dayEven when the shelter is built, the MCD will need sustained additional funding to run it. The civic body estimates ₹110 per dog per day in permanent shelters, covering feeding, transportation, medical expenses, cleaning and staff. “Initially the plan is to plan for the cost of keeping a few thousand dogs,” the official said.The MCD does not know how many stray dogs are present in Delhi, or how many occupy the institutional spaces covered by the SC order.No official census has been conducted in 16 years; the current estimate stands at a million. A third municipal official said the sterilisation drive was being ramped up — 101,394 dogs were sterilised between April 2025 and March 2026. “Our field staff face threats of FIRs from private individuals but now that the court has clarified that no FIRs will be filed, the drive is expected to pick up,” the official said.What activists saidFormer Union minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi said the court had done little more than restate its November order without addressing six months of nationwide non-compliance.She argued that the scale of non-compliance had forced the court’s hand. “I think in these six months, the Supreme Court has realised that there has been national non-compliance — not one state or one district, nobody has done what they said. So as a result, they have said, okay, now if you have a problem, go to the high court. That’s all,” she said.Jagdish Mamgain, former works committee chairman in the unified MCD, and author and an expert in municipal matters, questioned if the SC order was practical. “[The order has] proved to be on paper. After more than six months, the Union and state governments, as well as civic agencies haven’t implemented it.“Supreme Court had given instructions to catch stray dogs from public places...and to fence the premises to stop the entry and movement of stray dogs. Was this implemented anywhere in the country? Do the civic agencies and state governments have land available to build so many dog shelter homes for the permanent maintenance of stray dogs? Kennels must have adequate medical facilities and staff... No appointments or arrangements were made for veterinarians, dog handling personnel, specially modified vehicles/cages etc.”