Two of Mumbai's neighbourhood Ganesh mandals have decided the festival isn't just for people this year.

At Cuffe Parade's Transit Camp, the Colaba Sankraman Shibir Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal is marking its 44th year with an idol styled as Kaalbhairav, the fierce form of Shiva who rides a black dog. The mandal, known locally as Mumbaicha Krupalu, has announced that no stray will be chased out of the pandal for the full 11 days of celebration. Community dogs will be fed on site and, in a first for the mandal, invited to their own maha-aarti alongside pet parents.

Mandal president Amit Sawant, who has four dogs of his own at home, says the choice of deity wasn't random. "We try to bring educational themes to spread awareness about various issues," he said. "This year we will educate people about animal welfare, with the idol being a symbolic manifestation of Kaalbhairav. For the 11 days, we will ensure that strays are not shooed away and they have a place to rest inside the pandal and are also welcomed for maha aarti."

Across the city in Kandivali, the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal known as Kandivalicha Adhipati has gone bigger on infrastructure. Working with the JeevOne Welfare Foundation, the mandal has built its entire theme this year around animal cruelty, illegal wildlife trade, plastic pollution and water scarcity. Street dogs will get fed twice a day until visarjan. A rabies vaccination drive is planned alongside a rollout of radium collars for roughly 1,500 strays, and yes, there's a Maha-paw-aarti on the schedule too.

Mandal member Bhushan Tayde frames it as a return to what the festival's iconography already says. "People have forgotten that animals also have a place on this planet and their acts harm the voiceless beings," he said. "Lord Ganesha has become a powerful symbol of coexistence, with the head of an animal. We aim to educate people about laws against animal cruelty."

JeevOne founder Sanket Bhatt says the collaboration goes beyond a festival gimmick. The foundation plans a microchip implant camp at the pandal so pet parents walk away with a permanent identity record for their animals, not just a photo with the idol.

None of this changes what Ganeshotsav looks like from the outside, the dhol-tasha, the queues, the final walk to the water. But inside these two pandals, the crowd this week includes a fair number of four-legged regulars who usually get moved along. They'll stay put until visarjan, whenever that lands for each mandal, and for once nobody's shooing them off.