India’s top court has ordered authorities in New Delhi to start removing all stray dogs from its streets and to sterilize and relocate them to shelters permanently.

In cities across the country, the feral animals are both loved and feared. The judges are forging into intensely emotional territory by going after the ones in the capital.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday shifted the suo motu case regarding stray dogs in Delhi-NCR to a newly constituted three-judge bench, which will hear the matter today. The case, earlier being heard by a different bench,