As the G20 summit approaches, New Delhi will catch, sterilise and hide thousands of street dogs in an effort to clean up and beautify the streets of the city.

New Delhi’s municipal government plans to use nets to trap the canines from dozens of locations including around boutique hotels and some of the city’s monuments and tourist hotspots, reports said.

On Thursday authorities directed city employees to begin rounding up dogs for transport to local animal sterilisation centres “due to the G20 summit”.

“All stray dogs picked up from these locations shall be kept… for their further care and feeding till the programme is over,” the order said.

The Delhi metropolitan area has been on an intense beautification drive since India assumed the G20 presidency last year. Authorities have cleared illegal slums near summit venues and revamped major arterial routes on the city’s gridlocked roads ahead of September’s summit, which will host the G20 summit.

New Delhi is scheduled to host the G20 leaders’ summit on September 9 and 10.

Delhi’s streets, as per India’s livestock census of 2012, are home to more than 60,000 stray dogs. While sterilisation campaigns are regularly employed as a population control measure, dog packs remain the norm in parks and residential neighbourhoods throughout the city.