India, Aug. 13 -- The Supreme Court has, in its August 11 order to capture and put in shelters all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR, called it "a progressive exercise" - acknowledging that shelters could take time to be built and increased - and told the authorities to "begin by creating dog shelter(s) for say 5,000 dogs in the next six-eight weeks".

It added that under no circumstances should the dogs be released back onto the streets. "The stray dogs shall be captured, sterilized, dewormed and immunized as required by Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023," says the detailed order uploaded on the SC website on Wednesday.

"The dog shelters/pounds should have sufficient personnel to sterilize, deworm and immunize stray dogs and also for looking after...