Mumbai University has stopped outside animal-feeding volunteers and organisations from entering its Kalina campus to feed stray dogs, prompting protests from animal welfare groups and a complaint to the vice-chancellor. The dispute concerns about 85 dogs living across the 280-acre Vidyanagari campus and began after security personnel started denying access to feeders on August 25.
According to the report, several animal lovers and voluntary organisations had been providing food to the dogs twice a day. Four to five feeders from the Bandra-Kurla Complex area regularly travelled to the campus, with some university-based animal lovers also assisting them. The volunteers have said that the dogs’ health has deteriorated since their access was restricted.
The feeders told the newspaper that they had contacted university officials to seek permission to continue supplying food, but their requests had not produced a result. They said they possessed identity cards issued by a government authority as animal feeders and asked the university to verify those documents and permit entry under an approved arrangement. They also offered to feed the dogs at fixed locations designated by the university.
The issue was also raised by Nitin Nanaware, Maharashtra state secretary of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena. In a letter to the vice-chancellor, Nanaware sought an inquiry into who ordered the access restriction and called for action against the officials responsible. His complaint argued that a university campus should reflect values including coexistence, sensitivity and social responsibility, in addition to serving as a location for classrooms, offices and administration.
Mumbai University has said that it is following directions issued from time to time by the Supreme Court and the government. The university clarified that people from outside the campus who had been entering to feed the dogs were stopped from doing so. It also said that no restriction had been imposed on university-based animal lovers feeding the dogs.
The competing positions leave the immediate management of food and water for the campus dogs dependent on the university’s internal arrangements. The animal feeders have asked the administration to restore access or establish a controlled system that allows feeding at specified locations, while the university has maintained that its action follows judicial and government directions. The university’s stated position does not specify in the report which particular order or operational rule was used to restrict outside access.
