Patna — The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has launched a structured drive to create designated stray dog feeding zones across every ward in the city, part of an evolving urban animal management strategy that aims to balance public safety, animal welfare, and orderly use of public space.
The announcement reflects broader urban governance trends in India that seek humane, regulated solutions to street animal challenges while reducing conflict between people and free-roaming dogs. Under the initiative, each of Patna’s municipal wards will eventually host specific feeding zones where community members and animal welfare groups can provide food for stray dogs in a controlled and hygienic setting. The policy is designed to manage canine movement and clustering, reducing ad-hoc feeding on roadsides and curbing related hazards such as traffic interference and public discomfort. Officials say the zones will also serve as focal points for sterilisation and vaccination drives, reinforcing long-term population and health management.
This move aligns with recent Supreme Court directives that have underscored the need for designated feeding areas and humane oversight as part of broader Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules for managing stray dog populations. National legal guidance has urged municipal authorities to demarcate feeding spaces in each municipal ward and prohibit unregulated feeding on streets, due to public safety and sanitation concerns. Urban planners and public health specialists welcome such structured approaches, noting that free-roaming dog populations have long posed governance challenges in Indian cities. Without designated zones, uncoordinated feeding in residential lanes, market areas and near transit corridors can contribute to sanitation issues, traffic disruptions and heightened interactions between animals and people — particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as children and older residents.
Experts say a zoned feeding strategy can help strike a balance between animal welfare objectives and urban safety and hygiene goals. By concentrating food provisioning in identified locations, municipalities can also more effectively couple feeding with sterilisation and vaccination campaigns, reducing overall dog population growth and rabies risk. Complementary measures — such as animal birth control programmes, deworming and consistent health monitoring — can improve both canine and human health outcomes. Community engagement will be central to the policy’s success. PMC officials have indicated that local resident associations, NGOs and civic volunteers will be invited to participate in maintaining feeding zones, monitoring cleanliness and facilitating outreach that encourages responsible interaction with street dogs.
Clear signage, community education and designated helplines are expected to accompany the rollout to guide public behaviour and ensure compliance with municipal norms. Similar models have been adopted in other Indian cities, including Ahmedabad and Delhi, where municipal corporations have demarcated hundreds of stray dog feeding spots under structured regulations to manage animal-human interactions more effectively. Urban advocates argue that such progressive governance approaches—combining data-informed regulation with humane animal care—can reduce street conflicts and enhance the quality of neighbourhood public spaces. However, stakeholders also emphasise that designated zones should be integrated with robust sterilisation efforts and ongoing community participation to achieve lasting impact.
As PMC works to operationalise these feeding zones, the initiative may serve as a template for other mid-sized Indian cities grappling with similar challenges — creating regulated human-animal interfaces that protect both public interests and the welfare of free-roaming dogs.
