The erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike’s (BBMP) ambitious project of feeding stray dogs, which was announced in 2025, has been shelved following the formation of five new corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), sources said.

The project has been put on the backburner mainly due to a lack of interest, which activists say ‘should not have happened’. However, it is a legal obligation for the corporations to feed stray dogs as per the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, and the civic body itself had clarified that feeding is a ‘statutory requirement’ for them.

According to a GBA official, the feeding project was not even considered during budget allocation, although the corporations have earmarked funds for overall stray dog management. A major portion of the allocation was dedicated to establishing infrastructure for relocation and the ABC programme.

“During the transition to the GBA, files were transferred to different corporations. At the corporation level, the immediate focus was on strengthening ABC surgeries and complying with Supreme Court directives, so the feeding programme was sidelined,” the official said. He noted that the corporations may take it up in the future, but not immediately.

However, The Hindu has learned from a senior official that once the programme received a negative response from a section of society, and attracted negative publicity over confusion between ‘chicken rice’ and ‘biryani’, senior officials at the administrative level lost interest, and did not move the file forward even when the BBMP was active.

Incidentally, bidders were willing to participate in the tender process.

When the BBMP’s tender document mentioned chicken rice, it was mistaken for biryani and trolled, prompting the BBMP to issue a clarification. The BBMP pointed out that feeding was not a new initiative in the city, as it had been launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BBMP had arrangements with city restaurants, and leftovers were being fed to dogs. As a continuation of that effort, food was provided to a specific number of dogs in 2024 as well.

Nevina Kamath, an animal rights activist, expressed dissatisfaction over shelving the feeding programme despite the rules clearly mandating civic bodies to ensure that dogs are fed.

“If RWAs or apartment associations do not exist, the onus falls on civic bodies to feed dogs,” she said. “The ABC Rules mandated it because there are very few food-scavenging options for stray animals after the Solid Waste Management Rules were notified. Even at the RWA level, feeding barely happens. So, this feeding programme was an excellent move,” she said.

Anil Sagar, a dog feeder in south Bengaluru, pointed out that aggression among stray dogs is linked to hunger, and the feeding programme was designed to reduce hunger, thereby limiting aggression. “This was a more compassionate way of dealing with aggression than euthanasia,” he said.

According to civic body officials, the erstwhile BBMP’s objective behind planning the programme was that, in certain areas, scarcity of food forces dogs to form aggressive packs, increasing the likelihood of dog bites. The feeding programme was aimed at addressing such issues.

Ms. Nevina stressed that corporations should ensure that the ABC Rules are followed, which means that RWAs or corporations must ensure that dogs are fed.