A state expert panel in Kerala has proposed a ten-year plan to end the presence of free-roaming dogs in public spaces. Before asking how that goal will be achieved, there is a more immediate question: who will feed the dogs?
The roadmap was prepared by a committee involving Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, the Animal Husbandry Department and the Kerala Grama Panchayat Association. It proposes adoption, sterilisation, vaccination, shelters, microchipping and better waste management. The university has published the committee report, and Kerala’s Local Self-Government Department has said it supports the roadmap’s vision. That support does not mean the plan has been formally adopted or that statewide capture is underway. The department has also acknowledged that infrastructure will take time and that there are not enough veterinary staff to provide continuous sterilisation work.
There are humane ideas in the proposal. The panel recommends adoption for adult dogs as well as puppies, sustained sterilisation and vaccination, and controlled feeding stations. It says mass culling is not an option. Its approach to food has two parts: reducing access to unmanaged food waste, and providing designated places for feeding. Those are different policies. The public still needs to know how the feeding stations would work, who would pay for food and upkeep, and whether the people already feeding dogs would be involved.
The cost of shelter care shows why those questions cannot wait until after dogs are captured. Local authorities have discussed an estimate of about ₹50 a day to feed each dog in a shelter. Using the state’s estimated population of 450,000, a report calculated that feeding half that number would cost around ₹1.12 crore a day, ₹33.75 crore a month. This is a budget scenario, not an announced target to capture half the dogs or an approved funding allocation. The 450,000 figure is an estimate cited in the committee’s reporting, not the result of a recent statewide count.
At the same time, the shelter network needed to house dogs does not appear ready. A 6 November report said that land identification had progressed at only two locations and that building shelters would take at least six months after suitable sites were found. Days earlier, the Kerala High Court had criticised uneven compliance with shelter directions. Local bodies told the court they were struggling to find suitable land; some also reported local opposition to proposed sites. The court warned that contempt proceedings could follow continued non-compliance.
For dogs who remain on the streets, food still has to come from somewhere. People in communities already feed them, yet the published accounts of Kerala’s plan say little about those feeders, the costs they carry or how their work would fit into a system of designated feeding stations. If feeding is to be managed differently, the state should explain the change and provide a workable alternative. Dogs should not be left hungry because a shelter has no food budget, or because community feeding has been discouraged without a replacement.
The same principle applies to capture. A humane programme needs shelter places, food, veterinary care and staffing ready before large-scale collection begins. The available reports describe serious questions about funding, land and veterinary capacity. They do not establish that mass capture has started, or that the roadmap authorises mass killing.
Kerala’s proposal deserves to be judged by what happens to individual dogs, not by the ambition of its headline target. Before the state moves from recommendations to implementation, the public needs to see the money committed, the shelter capacity planned, the safeguards for dogs in care and the role of community feeders. A promise to clear the streets is not yet a plan for caring for the dogs.
Sources
Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Expert committee report ·
The New Indian Express Ten-year roadmap, 4 November 2026 ·
Onmanorama Shelter food costs and site progress, 6 November 2026 ·
The Times of India Adoption and controlled-feeding proposals, 3 November 2026 ·
The New Indian Express High Court concerns over shelter progress, 1 November 2026