Animal lovers take to India’s streets to feed virus strays

NEW DELHI: Tails are already wagging as Priyanka Gusain stops her car, sacks of cattle fodder and dog pellets on her back seat and water in the boot for her evening rounds in Delhi.

Gusain and her mother Vilochna are serving in an army of Indian animal lovers that has emerged to feed millions of strays left hungry and thirsty by the coronavirus lockdown in the world´s second-most populous nation. Used to scavenging scraps from hotels, restaurants and roadside stalls, the animals were left without sustenance as people withdrew to their homes in late March. “No-one is taking care of them. That thought made me do all of this,” Gusain, who designs and sells her own line of footwear, told AFP. An estimated 30 million stray dogs and five million stray cattle roam India´s usually bustling streets — weaving in and out of traffic and sheltering under highway overpasses during the scorching summer afternoons. But as the virus lockdown took hold, many urban areas turned into virtual ghost towns, leaving the animals to fend for themselves. In the southern city of Chennai, Vinod Kumar — of the animal welfare charity Blue Cross of India — said the situation was desperate.