Free-ranging dogs in the streets: foreseeing a multispecies coexistence crisis beyond shortsighted kindness or conflicts

Nishant Kumar 

Coexistence solutions tout conflict mitigation goals for commensals and wildlife, often ignoring the lived multispecies entanglements. Tropical cities have become battlegrounds of misguided kindness and escalating conflicts with animals. Human niche expansion creates a paradox for free-ranging denizens: abundant food sources from waste, yet unprecedented ecological pressures from infrastructural neglect. Drawing on the case of dogs, I reveal how ritual feeding and emotional responses create ecological traps, harming both animals and people, and warranting ecological foresight-driven planning for inclusive, more-than-human cities. 

This analysis gains particular urgency following the Delhi High Court’s directive to municipal authorities to submit a comprehensive policy framework by August 6, 2025, for the institutional rehabilitation and phasing out of free-ranging dogs from streets. Given the poorly founded ecological, behavioural and demographic assessments that characterise current urban animal management approaches, the court's expectation for evidence-based Standard Operating Procedures appears overly optimistic. 

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s capacity to deliver scientifically grounded solutions within this timeline remains questionable without fundamental shifts toward multispecies urban planning that integrates ecological understanding with institutional frameworks. This disconnect between judicial expectations and available knowledge underscores the critical need for research-informed policy development that transcends shortsighted approaches to urban animal coexistence.