Poonam Samtani
Feeder, founder of Mumbai United For Strays

One evening in April, while out on her daily round to feed the area's strays, Worli resident Poonam Samtani found herself being trailed by a convoy of police cars with flashing lights. "They wanted to know where I was going, because this was during the initial days of the national lockdown and state-imposed curfew." But, she wasn't going to let her 10-year routine get disrupted by the pandemic. "I live with three senior citizens, but I couldn't possibly stay at home while my furry children were going hungry." On being questioned, Samtani, who runs Poonam Tuitions, a private coaching centre, opened her car trunk to reveal containers filled with chicken and rice and dog food pellets.

At the time, the slums in Worli had been declared containment zones, and the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) was being converted into a quarantine centre. Eighty per cent of the 160 strays that Samtani had been feeding daily since 2013, belonged to these areas. The numbers had multiplied, because hungry animals from surrounding areas would come looking for food. "Nobody was allowed inside the quarantine centre. I went there every day, and the BMC officers relented, because otherwise the animals would die. The animals normally survive on scraps thrown by restaurant kitchens or street vendors. During the lockdown, there were none. I lost 10 strays because there was no food." Through Facebook posts and WhatsApp messages, she collected donations of dog food worth Rs 1 lakh, but that got over quickly.