As you walk through Delhi, there is much to take in at street level. The sweet scent of food carts selling guava and bananas blends with blooming jasmine, burning incense, and the fragrant fumes of auto rickshaws driving by. As the city awakens, motorbikes weave through the streets in a hurry, and any driver will tell you that it’s dogs and cows—not cats—around whom they will swerve on their morning commute. But look up, and your perspective will shift entirely. A thick canopy of lush green leaves seems to pour from the sky onto the rooftops, and in that overhead oasis, you’ll find that it’s the cats of Delhi who have a bird’s-eye view of it all.
“You won’t actually see many cats in Delhi . . . unless you look on top of the buildings,” explained Anupriya Dalmia, founder of Dogs of Delhi. Due to the ubiquity of street dogs, who can pose a threat to felines, most cats have made a life leaping from roof to roof. As canine sterilization efforts like Anupriya’s have started to stabilize the dog population, she and others are turning their attention upward.
