Pratima Devi, known to her neighbours as "Amma" (mother), is a ragpicker in south Delhi who has spent more than three decades feeding, sheltering and nursing the stray dogs around the PVR Anupam cinema complex in Saket. Reports over the years have put the number of dogs in her care at anywhere from 120 living around her shack to 400 across the wider area. She has lived on very little, survived the demolition of her home more than once, and refused offers to move away from the animals. Her story became widely known in 2016 through a short documentary by Barcroft TV.
Who is Pratima Devi?
According to a 2015 profile by the Indian news agency IANS, published by The News Minute, Pratima Devi came to Delhi in the early 1980s from Nandigram in West Bengal. Her early life was hard. She told reporters she was married at the age of seven to a much older man who drank and was often abusive, and she had her first child at 14. She later worked as a domestic helper, first in Kolkata and then in Delhi, where her eldest son had gone to work.
In Delhi she worked in a household, then ran a small tea stall near the PVR complex for more than 25 years. She also collected recyclable waste, such as bottles and paper, to sell. Over time her tin shack beside the cinema became the centre of a large, loosely organised dog sanctuary. Her children now live in a house in Sangam Vihar, about five kilometres away, but she has declined to move there because the dogs are not welcome.
Her age is reported differently from source to source: 61 in 2015, 65 in the 2016 documentary and 80 in 2023. Exact birth dates are often unrecorded for people of her generation in rural India, so the figures should be read as estimates.
A day with Amma and her dogs
Pratima Devi with some of the Saket dogs, in a still from the Barcroft TV documentary. She started out feeding them scraps and now relies on food from local donors.
Her routine has stayed much the same for years. She spends part of the day collecting and sorting rags and bottles, then turns to the dogs: feeding them, cleaning wounds and keeping an eye on the sick or injured. Some of the animals live around her shack, while others wait for her in the cinema courtyard and nearby residential blocks. In the beginning she fed them whatever she could find, but as her work became known, neighbours and animal lovers began bringing milk, biscuits and other food.
"Initially, I used to feed them left-over food from the garbage bin, but now people have started donating milk, food and biscuits." — Pratima Devi, to Barcroft TV
In the 2015 profile she said the local civic body had sterilised and vaccinated the dogs, an important point, because sterilised, vaccinated dogs that stay in a familiar territory are generally calmer and help keep unvaccinated newcomers away.
Why the dogs mean so much to her
For Pratima Devi, caring for the animals has brought a contentment she says she did not find in her marriage. Still from Barcroft TV.
Many people around her did not understand her devotion, and some questioned her judgement. She has also faced real hostility: she told IANS that her tea stall and home were once set on fire, an attack she blamed on a local shopkeeper and two police officers, leaving burn scars on her feet and killing some of her dogs. These allegations were her own account and do not appear to have been tested in court.
Despite that, she has described the dogs as her family and her purpose. Her words in the documentary were blunt:
"I was not that happy with my husband, as much as I am with these dogs. I am very happy!" — Pratima Devi, to Barcroft TV
Choosing the dogs over a quieter life
Her children have urged her to settle with them, but she has chosen to stay with the dogs. Still from Barcroft TV.
Her family has repeatedly asked her to move in with them or return to the village, but she has refused. In the film she explained that she wanted to stay and keep doing good for the dogs. For someone who has very little, the choice says a great deal about what she values.
You can watch the full Barcroft TV documentary here:
Demolitions in 2017 and 2023
Her shelter has twice been demolished by the city authorities. On 30 October 2017, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation knocked down her makeshift animal shelter in Saket. According to The Quint, she said she received no prior notice and only about 15 minutes to clear the site; afterwards many dogs went missing and a couple died. The corporation said it acted after complaints from residents and shopkeepers about encroachment and drug dealing in the area. Shopkeepers were divided: some said the dogs bit and frightened customers, while others said the dogs were no nuisance and that drug peddling was the real problem.
In early January 2023, her home near the PVR complex was demolished again, leaving her, then reported to be about 80, without a roof in the Delhi winter. The Delhi High Court heard a challenge to the demolition. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri noted that the structure had been pulled down without prior notice, ordered the status quo to be maintained until the next hearing and allowed her to put up a tarpaulin in the meantime. Animal activists, including the actor Tarana Singh, organised help and temporary shelters for the dogs, which were then reported to number more than 200.
Stray dogs in Delhi: the bigger picture
Pratima Devi's story sits inside a long and emotional debate. Delhi has a large population of street dogs, and dog bites are a genuine public health concern: India's Supreme Court cited more than 25,000 bite cases in Delhi in 2024. At the same time, Indian law under the Animal Birth Control rules favours sterilising and vaccinating strays and returning them to their own area, rather than removing them.
That tension came to a head in August 2025. On 11 August, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ordered Delhi's authorities to round up stray dogs and keep them in shelters. After a public outcry, a three-judge bench modified the order on 22 August: dogs could be released back to the same area after sterilisation, deworming and vaccination, except those with rabies or showing aggressive behaviour, and feeding was to happen at designated spots instead of in public places generally.
For carers like Amma, this approach matters. Experts in animal welfare generally agree that steady, organised care, with sterilisation, vaccination and fixed feeding points, is what makes street dogs safer for everyone. If you want to help street animals where you live, supporting a local sterilisation and vaccination programme, or a carer who works with one, is one of the most useful things you can do.
What her story teaches
Pratima Devi has never had money, influence or a proper home. What she has had is decades of patience with animals that most people walk past. Her life also shows the limits of individual kindness: without secure housing, legal protection and support from the city, even the most devoted carer can lose everything in an afternoon. The lasting lesson is that compassion works best when communities and institutions back it up.
Sources: The News Minute (IANS), 28 June 2015: This 61-year-old ragpicker or "Amma" cares for over 400 dogs; The Quint, 2 November 2017: A ragpicker's home and dog shelter demolished in Delhi; The Mooknayak, 5 January 2023: Animal lovers join hands after MCD demolishes Amma's home; The Week, 22 August 2025: Supreme Court's modified verdict on stray dogs in Delhi-NCR. Photos and video: Barcroft TV. The story was also shared by Being Indian.
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