A collective voice for the animal protection movement in India

Bharati Ramachandran did not set out to work in animal welfare and advocacy. She set out to tell stories as a journalist at the Telegraph in Kolkata. 

Attending a Statesman award event for rural reporting, where P Sainath, a journalist and the founding editor of PARI (People's Archive of Rural India) Network, was the keynote speaker, changed the trajectory of her career. 

In early 2001, she traded the newsroom for the social sector and joined a consulting firm that worked exclusively with non-profits.

For the next 10 years, she worked largely on human rights issues, working with Dalit and Adivasi groups and LGBTQ communities, and in the areas of agriculture and reproductive and sexual health. 

Animal rights was a personal passion, but it had not yet entered her professional work. In 2009, she received the Chevening Gurukul Fellowship and went to London. Upon returning, she started her own agency for communication and fundraising for non-profits.

“That is when I came into animals (animal welfare) professionally for the first time, incidentally through the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), working closely with communication,” recalls Ramachandran, who is based in Bengaluru.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to shut down the agency and return to writing. But she had been away from journalism for so long, the hustle wasn’t in her anymore, and she wanted to work closely with the causes.

“I joined FIAPO to head communications and fundraising, and within three months I found myself in the position of CEO, something I had not aspired to,” she says.

She reveals her eyes were finally opened when she realised 2 billion animals are part of food systems, living in horrific conditions. These were the stories she wanted to tell people.

The state of animal welfare in India

India, Ramachandran points out, actually has some of the most progressive animal protection laws in the world. The 2014 Nagaraja judgement by the Supreme Court explicitly stated that animals have a value beyond their usefulness to human beings, a progressive and bold position. India’s values of karuna and ahimsa, she argues, provide the country with a solid cultural foundation.

However, the problem is not the law; it’s what happens after.

“We know that under the law, it’s not allowed to make animals fight each other. And yet, dog fights are happening, in remote farmhouses, in closed WhatsApp groups, until a dog dies,” she says. 

FIAPO recently filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Courts against dog fights, a practice kept out of public view.

In some cases, implementation is where the gap is.

When the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita scrapped Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, what was lost was a provision that criminalised sexual violence against animals. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA) has no equivalent cause.

"It could be included as a separate section under BNS, or brought into the PCA. It is a straightforward fix. And yet the PCA has not been tabled in Parliament for the longest time. In the three years since BNS came into force, reported sexual crimes against animals have risen,” says Ramachandran.

Another issue is Animal Birth Control (ABC). Cities like Bengaluru and Lucknow and parts of Mumbai have implemented ABC and seen the dog population fall. But across India, implementation of ABC remains inconsistent. 

“ABC requires political will, budget, trained veterinarians, and trained catch teams. When these are not provided, a good law is being set up to fail,” she says.

FIAPO’s first active push is for a specific legal provision to prosecute perpetrators of sexual violence against animals. The second is to get the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) to record crimes against animals.

“In 2020, FIAPO published a report documenting approximately 4,93,000, nearly 5 lakh, crimes committed against animals over a 10-year period. These are only reported crimes; the actual number is far higher. Yet not one crime against an animal is recorded in the NCRB's national database. What is recorded gets addressed; what is not recorded is almost impossible to address at scale,” says Ramachandran. 

A case has been filed in the Delhi High Court on this.

In Karnataka, FIAPO is working to build capacity for ABC delivery in 31 districts.  

With the stray dog debate polarising many cities, how does one balance public safety concerns with humane treatment of dogs?

“I strongly believe that if we implement Animal Birth Control, spaying and neutering dogs and cats, aiming for at least 70% coverage, we will, within a few years, phase out new births entirely. Bengaluru has already reported a 10% reduction in the dog population through consistent ABC implementation,” explains Ramachandran.

She also points out that Bengaluru has a strong citizen movement, with 67 canine squads across the city, set up by CJ Memorial Trust, a FIAPO member organisation. Citizens in these squads care for community dogs, vaccinating them, ensuring sterilisation, and responding to any illness, accident, or cruelty. This model works, she says. 

Peaceful, ethical coexistence

Unfortunately, the issue has been framed as a divide between those who stand for animals and those who stand for human beings, says Ramachandran. 

“That framing is a false choice. This is about peaceful, ethical coexistence—a One Health approach, where animal welfare, human health, and environmental health are recognised as inseparable,” she adds.

Elaborating further, Ramachandran says, “Along with 50 other organisations, FIAPO is part of the India Karuna Collaborative. The premise is that animal welfare is not a niche emotional issue; it has deep intersections with human health and climate change.” 

What is the future of animal advocacy in India? Ramachandran says organisations are struggling and face a significant capacity gap.

"There are various ways to starve an organisation. When you have to raise funds within the country to stay alive, and donors want to fund projects but not institutional capacity—not patient capital, not capacity building—organisations will flounder. If leadership (of these organisations)  is constantly just looking at survival, how do you look beyond where you should be investing strategically?” she explains.

Ask her what gives her hope, she says, “People. Extremely passionate people who care. People who put aside their tiredness, their exhaustion, their frustration, which is considerable, and rise to the occasion. We have some wonderful people in this movement who fight the weariness and fight the system every day.” 

“The animals, and the people who work for them, are absolutely fantastic,” she adds.