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Tan street dog trotting down a road between the legs of two passing pedestrians

Kolkata

Kolkata Street Dogs: Community Care and the Indian Native Dog

January 2011

In 2011, Amanda Fornal traveled in and around Kolkata, India, to document street and community dogs and the people working to improve their welfare. The project included interviews with animal-welfare volunteers, neighborhood residents who regularly fed local dogs, and workers caring for injured and abandoned animals at Chhaya Animal Shelter.

Community-Based Animal Care

Divyangshu, an animal-welfare volunteer associated with YODA and the Debasree Roy Foundation, arranged visits with people caring for dogs throughout Kolkata.

Oindrila and Tamaghna, both physics doctoral students, reported feeding approximately 30 street dogs each day. They also monitored the animals’ health, arranged vaccinations, and responded when dogs in their area were injured or ill.

Other residents prepared food for animals living near their homes. Sulekha and her daughter reported feeding approximately 30 to 45 dogs in the Dhakuria Lake area. Israt and her mother prepared food for approximately 40 dogs.

Beena, a domestic worker with limited financial resources, reportedly fed approximately 35 dogs and two dozen cats. According to the field account, she carried buckets of water for meat and fish sellers in exchange for scraps that could be used to feed the animals.

Together, these residents formed an informal neighborhood care network. Their work relied largely on personal time, household resources, and relationships with local volunteers rather than a centralized animal-care system.

Chhaya Animal Shelter

The principal institutional visit was to Chhaya Animal Shelter in Aswathberia, outside Kolkata.

During the 2011 visit, the shelter cared for injured, disabled, abandoned, and unwanted animals. Indoor recovery areas housed dogs receiving postoperative care following sterilization, treatment for traffic injuries, tumor removal, wound treatment, and other medical procedures.

Treatment boards near the enclosures recorded individual animals’ procedures, medications, and recovery status. Dogs healthy enough to return to their original neighborhoods were released after treatment and recovery. Animals unable to survive safely on the streets remained at the shelter.

The project documented abandoned puppies, dogs recovering from serious injuries, and dogs whose rear legs had been paralyzed in accidents. Shelter workers bottle-fed young puppies and provided long-term care for animals requiring continuing assistance.

Chhaya continues to operate as Chhaya Animal Hospital and Shelter under People for the Respect and Care of Animals. Its current services include animal rescue, medical and surgical treatment, rehabilitation, and permanent sanctuary for animals that cannot safely be released.

The Indian Native Dog

During the project, Oindrila and Tamaghna discussed the Indian Native Dog, commonly called the INDog, and their interest in increasing recognition and protection for indigenous dogs in India.

The term INDog is used to describe an indigenous village-dog landrace of the Indian subcontinent. Unlike standardized modern breeds developed through controlled breeding, landrace populations are shaped over generations by their local environments, human communities, natural selection, and varying degrees of human influence.

INDog should not be used as a general name for every street dog in Kolkata or elsewhere in India. Urban free-ranging dog populations can include indigenous village dogs as well as dogs with mixed ancestry.

Archaeological sites across India and the wider subcontinent demonstrate that domestic dogs have lived alongside people in the region for thousands of years. However, ancient DNA has not yet established that present-day INDogs are direct descendants of the dogs found at those sites. Similarities in appearance or skeletal structure alone are not sufficient to confirm an uninterrupted genetic lineage.

Archival Significance

The project documents more than the physical conditions experienced by Kolkata’s street dogs. It records the informal human networks that fed them, arranged vaccinations, responded to injuries, and provided shelter and medical care.

The photographs and interviews preserve a record of community-based animal welfare in Kolkata in 2011 and the individuals who devoted personal time and resources to protecting animals living around them.

Man in glasses cradling two street puppies, one black and one pale, against his chest
Hands lifting the ear of a tan-and-white dog lying on its side on dry ground
Black-and-white puppy asleep on sunlit dirt scattered with thin grass
Brown-and-white puppy scratching its ear among dry fallen leaves
Woman in a printed scarf bending to stroke a thin brown street dog on a road
Smiling woman in a headscarf greeting a dog that rears up to meet her hands
Tan street dog trotting down a road between the legs of two passing pedestrians
Several dogs resting on a quiet tree-lined street as people and a parked car share the road
Lean sandy-coloured dog walking straight toward the camera on empty asphalt
Close portrait of a tan-and-white street dog with folded ears, watching sidelong
Man holding a notebook stoops to cup the muzzle of a black-and-white street dog
Black-and-tan dog with a yellow band at its neck curled on bare earth by a wire fence
Man bending down to greet a collared street dog beside an open metal gate
Tan and white street dog sitting on a roadside, looking off to one side
Hand offering food to tan dogs crowding at a padlocked iron gate
Woman on a rooftop cradling a white and tan dog that leans against her
Smiling young woman holding the raised paws of a collared tan dog
Black dog in an orange collar sitting on bare, dusty ground
Ginger and white dog with a red collar walking past low metal railings
Thin pale dog in a red collar with eyes closed and staining down its face
White dog with a black-marked head and orange collar, seen in profile
Black and white dog facing the camera as other dogs mill on dry grass behind
Two collared dogs standing in a fenced compound near a metal water bowl
Collared tan dog sitting in a wall alcove beneath a hanging tarpaulin
Three street dogs resting on concrete steps, one with a blue bandage on its hind leg
Fenced shelter yard where dozens of dogs stand beneath woven bamboo shade canopies
Shelter worker in green overalls carrying a yellow bucket through a yard full of dogs
Dogs tethered along low rails, several eating from metal bowls in the dirt yard
Feeding time at the shelter, bowls set out along the rails as a worker brings a bucket
Young man in a pink shirt pouring food from a pot into a bowl for waiting dogs
Row of tethered dogs bent over their feeding bowls on a brick and dirt yard
Tan dog trotting across a harvested field in the Sundarbans, a person working beyond
Ginger street dog lying stretched out on sunlit pavement
Black and tan dog with a thick ruff walking along a dusty road
Curl-tailed black and tan dog standing on dry grass beside pale blue railings
Portrait of a black and tan dog resting, its face turned toward the camera

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