"I don't remember how and when I got so attached to them. But I know that I can't live without them. They are like my children…" said 80-year-old Pratima on the afternoon of 4 December, as she sat amid hundreds of indie dogs in Delhi's Saket.
She and her dogs were left without a home when her shack, that served as a shelter home, was razed to the ground by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in an anti-encroachment drive carried out on 2 January.
Pratima petitioned in the Delhi High Court against the encroachment drive. The court ordered 'status quo' on MCD's demolition drive, and permitted her to spread a tarpaulin as an interim measure. At present, dog feeders and well-wishers from across the capital city are helping her build a temporary shed with a tarpaulin sheet on top.
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