In cities across the country, the feral animals are both loved and feared. The judges are forging into intensely emotional territory by going after the ones in the capital.

India’s top court has ordered authorities in New Delhi to start removing all stray dogs from its streets and to sterilize and relocate them to shelters permanently.

The problem of stray dogs in Delhi-NCR is because of "inaction" by local authorities, the Supreme Court said on Thursday, 14 August, while reserving its order on the interim plea seeking a stay on the 11 August direction passed by a two-judge bench of the apex court.