Over the past few days, I read somewhere around 10-15 articles about stray animals.
I was not really reading them to gather statistics or collect arguments. I wanted to understand how people who have spent years caring for abandoned animals think.
The articles differed in detail but remarkably similar in spirit. They spoke of rescues and rehabilitation. Sterilisation drives. Adoption campaigns. Funding shortages. Shelter capacity. Municipal policies. Veterinary care.
Each of these conversations was undoubtedly necessary but one question was still missing.
When did we stop noticing stray animals in the first place?
Not when did we stop helping them.
WHEN DID WE STOP SEEING THEM?
India is home to an estimated stray animal population that runs into the tens of millions. The 2019 Livestock Census recorded around 15.3 million stray dogs, while municipal bodies and animal welfare organisations suggest the real number is considerably higher. Add to that the millions of stray cattle that wander our roads, markets and neighbourhoods.
Numbers, however, have an unfortunate habit of sounding distant.
They sleep right beneath our parked cars. They sit outside bakeries breathing in the smell of bread they will never taste. They curl up right beside the tea stalls where conversations about office politics outlast daylight. They stand right outside school gates after the children go home.
They are everywhere we are. Visible enough to avoid & invisible enough to ignore.
and that makes me wonder whether this is how indifference begins.
History has shown us such patterns before.
The Passenger Pigeon once darkened North American skies in unimaginable numbers. The Dodo became a punchline after it vanished. Steller's Sea Cow survived for millennia until human indifference and exploitation erased it within decades of its discovery.
Even closer to home, the House Sparrow, once inseparable from Indian mornings, has steadily retreated from many cities as concrete replaced nesting spaces and urban life grew less hospitable to these tiny creatures.
Obviously. these stories are not the same as the lives of stray animals, but the process feels familiar. Before something disappears from the earth it often disappears from our conscience.
I am writing this as an intern, and I wonder what happens to these words after it is submitted.
Can an article genuinely alter behaviour, persuade someone to pause before turning away?
More uncomfortably, will this piece change the way I respond the next time I encounter a thirsty dog resting beside my scooter or a frightened kitten hiding near my staircase?
I hope the answer is yes
because writing has always been less about changing the world in a snap and more about clearly refusing to let certain realities become ordinary.
All this food for thought came from Project Jeev, an initiative by the InAmigos Foundation.
Its work is practical, compassionate, and deeply necessary.
🐾 Rescuing injured and abandoned animals.
🐾 Feeding stray animals that struggle to survive each day.
🐾 Providing medical treatment, rehabilitation, and protection.
🐾 Creating safe spaces for recovery.
🐾 Helping animals find loving homes whenever possible.
None of these acts erase the larger problem but they simply insist that compassion is still alive and that it is more practical than emotional.
There are reasons to believe this. In Gurugram, after a tragic conflict involving community dogs, the residents, local authorities, and animal welfare groups worked together and strengthened sterilisation efforts & created designated feeding zones. Over the following eleven months, that locality reportedly saw no further dog bite incidents of the kind that had sparked the crisis.
Coexistence, it turns out, is not some abstract ideal that we have painted it to be .
The next time you walk through your beautifully landscaped colony, your gated apartment complex, or the polished streets we so often celebrate as symbols of development, take a moment to look down.
You may notice a dog whose fawn coloured head has almost forgotten what a gentle hand feels like or a cat waiting quietly beside a drain because that corner has become its safest place or a cow chewing plastic because grass is harder to find than discarded packaging or an injured bird searching for the shrinking pockets where concrete has not replaced home.
If an animal is comfortable with human touch, offer a gentle caress.
Leave a bowl of water outside your gate. (the most rightful thing a living being can ever have)
Share food that would otherwise be thrown away just because it was not seasoned enough for you to like it , provided it is safe for the animal.
If you already do these things, tell someone about them. Share those quiet moments of kindness. Stories work where awareness campaigns often cannot.
If your circumstances allow, support initiatives like Project Jeev through
But whether you donate or not, I hope one thing changes. I hope the next stray animal you pass is no longer something to be ignored.
The greater question was never about them at all. It was about us.
About whether we can still notice the lives that exist at our feet before their abundance convinces us they will always be there.
InAmigos Foundation (IAF) InAmigosFoundation Volunteer
#InAmigosFoundation #ProjectJeev #AnimalWelfare #SaveStrays #FeedTheVoiceless #CompassionForAnimals #StrayAnimalCare #IAF
