Preying on Olive Ridleys & even young wolves, how stray dogs have become a big threat to conservation

For years, environmentalists and biologists have stressed threat posed by packs of stray, feral dogs to endangered animals.

For years, environmentalists have stressed threat posed by packs of stray, feral dogs to endangered Olive Ridley turtle nests, Great Indian bustards & snow leopards | ANI/Bloomberg/Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ordered the removal of stray dogs from Delhi and NCR cities in public interest. But there is another area where these dogs are potentially more harmful—in the wild. 

For years, environmentalists and biologists have stressed the threat posed by packs of stray, feral dogs to endangered animals like Olive Ridley turtle nests, Great Indian bustards, snow leopards, black-necked cranes, and even Indian wolves. 

In every ecosystem, from marine beaches to deserts to the mountains, packs of stray dogs outnumber other animals by a wide margin and have become one of the biggest conservation threats in recent years, said Sumit Dookia, a wildlife biologist based in Rajasthan. 

“You name any animal, snow leopards in Ladakh or wolves in Maharashtra or our GIB in Rajasthan, they are all threatened by dogs,” said Dookia, an associate professor at the University School of Environment Management, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. “They can bring down animals even larger than them because, like wolves, they hunt in packs.”

The last government survey in 2019 pegged India’s total stray dog population at 1.52 crore, making India home to one of the largest stray dog populations in the world. From 2022 to 2025 January, India recorded 92 lakh reported cases of dog bites, and 125 deaths from them.

Reports and papers from the Wildlife Trust of India, Conservation India, Tiger Watch, Nature Conservation Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Trust have documented several instances of dogs disturbing, attacking, hunting, and even killing animals of other species.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority even released guidelines in 2018 on how to get rid of feral dogs—domesticated dogs that have returned to a wild state, living independently of humans for survival and reproduction—from inside tiger reserves as their presence was caught on several cameras on the premises. They chase animals and even bring diseases to the wild animals inside the reserve.

A 2023 article by the University of Texas, Austin, categorised dogs as “invasive species” since they compete with the natural wildlife in a region for food and other resources. They also feature in the Global Invasive Species Database and are a threat to 191 different species—from seals to armadillos to even other wild dogs. 

As early as 2012, Conservation India reported Indian grey wolves being chased by feral dogs in Pune. Other reports by the International Wolf Center also described the threat posed by these dogs—they chase Indian grey wolves, which are fewer in number, even attacking their pups and weaker adults. A couple years ago, a wolf-dog hybrid was spotted in Pune, sparking concern about the  intermixing of wild and feral animals.

Community protection for endangered species

The threat of feral dogs to indigenous wildlife and biodiversity has long been acknowledged by at least the local communities in many parts of India. There are examples of people in Chennai, Odisha, and Ladakh coming together for conservation initiatives. 

In Chennai, the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network has been working since the 1980s to spread awareness about feral dog threats to turtle nests and to collect eggs for safekeeping until hatching. Similar activities take place in Rushikulya and other beaches in Odisha too.

“What started as a citizen science activity in the 1980s in Chennai to collect Olive Ridley turtle eggs and place them in hatcheries is now a major nest protection program across the country,” said Suresh Kumar, a scientist from the Wildlife Institute of India. “The reason is the increased prevalence of dogs across almost all beaches.”

Olive Ridley turtles nest about twice a year, and at one time can lay up to 100 eggs. Scientists speculate that the reason they all nest together on one beach is to swamp the predators with a lot of eggs and increase the survival rate of the herd in general. Known predators of these turtle eggs are pigs, hyenas, jackals, and even wild dogs sometimes.

“The turtles have ways of protecting themselves and their eggs from natural predators—hyenas, jackals, and boars. That’s why they lay eggs en masse, and try to swamp the predators,” said Kumar. “But now there are so many dogs and crows to threaten them that it isn’t natural predation anymore.”

In Rajasthan’s Sam village, Great Indian bustard eggs are kept inside fenced enclosures to protect them from dogs. Both Great Indian bustards in Rajasthan and black-necked cranes in the Himalayas and Tibet are chased and disturbed by feral dogs. Since they are both ground-nesting birds, their eggs are at higher risk from ground predators.

But in many cases recently, even adult birds have been seen being chased by dogs, thus disrupting their natural habitats. Other forms of protection against dogs include sterilising and vaccinating them in regions with high human and wildlife density. 

In the Lahaul and Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh, the Snow Leopard Trust reported in 2014 that communities came together for exactly that. They carried out vaccination and sterilisation programmes for stray dogs, volunteered to take care of dogs post the procedure, and also worked on garbage management. These measures were to ensure the dogs don’t prey on their livestock, and also don’t harass snow leopards that are indigenous to the area.

“We need to understand that stray dogs have descended from wolves, and once they get into packs like wolves, they can kill animals much larger than their size,” said Chandrima Home, wildlife ecologist and assistant professor, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. “And by being domesticated, their numbers are just much higher than any other predators, especially in human-dense regions.”

Why are dogs a wildlife menace?

Research papers and experts both in India and internationally draw a simple link between the stray dog menace and the spread of human habitation. As human settlements and tourism expanded, so have dog populations. Home, whose PhD thesis was on domestic dogs and native wildlife interactions in the Himalayas, explained how dogs were domesticated by humans around 30,000 years ago when they split from wolves. 

“They were the first species ever to be domesticated, even before sheep or cattle or any other domestic animals you see now,” said Home. “So dogs and humans go way back, and humans have actively changed the genetic makeup of dogs to breed the traits they like,” she added.

According to Wildlife Institute of India scientist Suresh Kumar, it’s easier for dogs to survive in different environments like tropical beaches or cold mountains or even deserts because of the availability of food. He said stray dogs routinely feed in garbage dumps and are even fed by people in surrounding areas. Also they procreate a few times a year and give birth to big litters, which increases their survival rates.

Home, on the other hand, gave another explanation for the explosion of stray dogs population in India—the reduction of vulture numbers in the 1990s. When vultures died due to diclofenac poisoning, dogs took their place as scavengers in the ecosystem and their numbers increased, he said. However, while vultures fulfilled an ecological niche as scavengers, feral dogs brought with them diseases and more aggression, thus endangering both humans and wildlife, he added.

Lack of data 

One of the major problems cited by experts with regard to the stray dog problem is the lack of data. While field ecologists and rangers and even camera traps have captured dogs chasing and attacking wildlife, there is little data on the number of dogs and the number of their wildlife casualties in field reserves. 

“The last livestock census, which measures stray dog numbers, was conducted in 2019. There is no data on how many stray dogs are there in the country right now, how their populations grow, in what areas they are more spread out,” said Home. “We need accurate data to deal with these problems.”

Sumit Dookia, the wildlife biologist based in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert for the GIB conservation project, has seen dogs attack chinkara (gazelles). From various wildlife organisations, there are also pictures of them attacking Indian wild ass, sheep and other animals. 

A 2020 study by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti regions tried to track feral dog presence using scats, camera traps and questionnaires with locals but it was unable to get to the exact numbers.

“You have to understand, these stray dogs are half domestic and half wild. We have no idea of their genetic makeup, their diet varies based on where they reside, and they’re not native to any region so they can be found anywhere across the country,” said Dookia. “Even if we want to deal with them, we need to know basic information about them first.”

What are measures to fix it?

The central government introduced the Animal Birth Control programme in 2001 and revised it in 2023. It remains the government’s only measure to manage the population of feral stray dogs. The ABC programme recommends sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs to control their population, but ecologists have routinely said that it is not enough.

“What about every other factor that contributes to their spread? What about garbage disposal and pet ownership policies? In India there is no enforcement of strong pet ownership laws,” stressed Home. “You can’t just think of it as a quick fix. Managing dogs involves multi-pronged methods that address all factors.”

The ABC policy also emphasises that after sterilisation, dogs need to be returned to their exact location where they were picked up. This causes trouble, especially in wildlife-prone areas, as sterilised dogs can still pose a threat to wildlife.

Regarding the recent Supreme Court order, Suresh Kumar said it was long overdue. “I am passionate about dogs and I love them, but they cannot be free ranging. They pose a threat to everyone, from humans to other wildlife. I understand there’s a lot of pushback against the order, but it is misplaced compassion,” he said.

(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)