Dog bites and rabies deaths expose India's stray animal policy failures

Rising dog bites and rabies deaths expose gaps in data, healthcare and sterilisation, showing how policy struggles to balance safety with compassion

Bengaluru: On a quiet Sunday morning in April, four-year-old Khadeera Banu was playing inside her house in Davangere when a stray dog wandered in. Within moments, the child was dragged outside and mauled. She suffered several critical injuries on her face and body. Mohammed Sajid Ali, her father, recalls how quickly the attack played out.

Sajid told DH that Khadeera was initially treated at the government hospital and then at a private hospital in Davangere.

“Although she recovered initially, she suddenly developed a cold and fever. We took her to our family doctor, but the problem did not subside. The blood test, too, came back normal,” said Sajid, a street vendor.

After three to four days, Khadeera developed a fever and started vomiting. After a few tests, she was diagnosed with rabies and was admitted to the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Bengaluru.

After battling for life for four months, Khadeera succumbed to her injuries on August 17. Doctors treating her said she died of ‘dumb rabies’ — a condition which renders the patient unresponsive.

Sajid said he spent around Rs 15 lakh on her treatment, but to no avail. “Within a month, we found out that Khadeera was infected with rabies. She got her first dose of vaccination on the day of the dog bite and was later given three doses within a month,” he adds.

“After the incident, the city corporation took away some 10 street dogs. But the area still has many of them. We are concerned about the safety of the other children,” Sajid said.

In another incident at Bengaluru’s Kodigehalli, 68-year-old Seetappa was found lying in a pool of blood. A police report mentions that he was mauled to death by a pack of dogs while on his morning walk in late July.

Around 2,000 km away, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, a state-level Kabaddi player, Brijesh Solanki (22), died of rabies in June. A video of him screaming and gasping for breath rattled the public. It was later revealed that Brijesh was bitten by a stray puppy that he tried to rescue two months back. He brushed off the issue and did not take the anti-rabies vaccines.

These cases, like many others reported across the country, underscore the persistent and complex challenge posed by stray dogs.

The human-stray dog conflict was thrust into the national spotlight after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the issue. The two-judge bench directed that all stray dogs in the Delhi-NCR region be moved to shelters with no scope for release.The order led to outrage and massive protests from animal rights activists across the country. Several lawyers highlighted to the Chief Justice of India, B R Gavai, that the ruling conflicted with previous verdicts and laws.

Consequently, a three-judge bench significantly modified the order within 11 days. The order included a stay on the no-release provision. The bench also ruled that aggressive dogs may not be released and recommended that feeding areas be demarcated across the country.The court’s directions, however, address only part of the challenge. The scale of the stray dog population itself remains daunting. According to a global report on pet homelessness (2022-23), India is home to 6 crore free-roaming dogs.

The report highlights that around 71% of dogs in India are on the streets. However, the 2019 Livestock Census conducted by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, pegged the number at only 1.5 crore. Experts say that the burgeoning stray dog population has become a public health and civic safety crisis, largely driven by human action.

According to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India saw 37 lakh dog bite cases in 2024. This marks a 69% increase in such cases from 2022 and a 22% jump from 2023.

Timely sterilisation necessary

While not all bites are from stray dogs, with their high overall population, strays contribute generously to the number.

Maharashtra reported the highest number of dog bite cases at 4.9 lakh, followed closely by Tamil Nadu with 4.8 lakh. Karnataka recorded 3.6 lakh cases last year.

Meanwhile, Delhi saw a steep rise of 277% in dog bite cases between 2022 (6,691) and 2024 (25,210). Kerala also witnessed a similar jump from 4,000 cases in 2022 to over 1 lakh cases in 2024.

Several animal rights activists argue that the number of bite cases are inflated. They say that primary healthcare centres often count the number of vials of anti-rabies shots instead of the actual bites, highlighting inaccuracies.

“A lot of people working for animal welfare take precautionary vaccines regularly. Often these numbers are added as dog bites. Multiple shots are administered for a single bite, which are sometimes erroneously counted as multiple bites. Also, since the vaccine is administered for other bites, like cats and not dogs alone, the numbers are further inflated,” Chennai-based Arun Prasanna, founder of People for Cattle in India, told DH, adding that the numbers also do not differentiate between pet and stray dog bites.

Rabies

One of the biggest challenges that the increase in stray dog population poses is the spread of rabies — a zoonotic disease found to affect humans. The disease is transmitted through the saliva of a rabid animal and is 100% fatal when timely intervention fails. According to a written response shared by the Union government in the Lok Sabha in April, India reported 54 human rabies deaths last year.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies dogs as the source of the vast majority of human rabid deaths, contributing up to 99% of all rabies transmissions.

According to a research paper published by the Delhi-based National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), annually, approximately 59,000 human deaths and a loss of 3.7 million DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) are associated with dog-mediated rabies globally, with Asia and Africa bearing the highest burden.

While India accounts for 36% of the global deaths due to rabies, the burden in Asia stands at 60%. NCDC research pegs the economic loss due to this at $8.6 billion in India. Rabies has been reported in all states and union territories of India, except for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

WHO asserts that about 30% to 60% of reported rabies cases and deaths in India occur in children under the age of 15 years, as bites that occur in children often go unrecognised and unreported. While pronouncing its earlier order on August 11, the Supreme Court also specifically noted that, “Infants and young children should not fall prey to rabies.”

Coexistence

While any discussion on the stray dog issue usually turns into a heated debate with emotive arguments from both sides, it is pivotal to note that the right policy can allow the coexistence of humans and dogs.

India’s policies to manage the growing population of stray dogs have evolved from the colonial-era culling practices to more humane ways of population control via neutering and spaying. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960) criminalised cruelty against animals and established the Animal Welfare Board of India.

In 2001, the Animal Birth Control (Dog) (ABC) Rules were enacted, introducing Catch–Neuter–Vaccinate–Release (CNVR) as the mandated framework, prohibiting the killing or relocation of healthy stray dogs. These rules were further strengthened by the ABC Rules, 2023, which require municipalities to implement large-scale sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination programmes.

While Indian policy is globally accepted as among the most effective and humane ways of dealing with community dogs, gaps have led to the compounding of human-dog conflicts.

The challenge begins with the very first step, counting stray dogs. The 2019 Livestock Census, the most recent available, contains glaring inconsistencies. For instance, it records that Manipur has no stray dogs at all. However, Union government data shows that the eastern state has reported 22,279 dog bite cases from 2018 to 2023. Unless the population of free-roaming dogs and the burden of bites is known, no policy can be implemented effectively on the ground.

The ABCs of animal control

Under the ABC Programme, the Union government has directed that states cover 70% free-roaming dogs to control the spread of rabies cases and manage the stray dog population.

Researchers and activists have highlighted that for ABC programmes to be successful, rigorous and consistent implementation is required. However, many local bodies do complaint-based sterilisation instead of implementing area-based measures.

“Municipal bodies tend to do sterilisation based on complaints. This makes the exercise futile. Until 70% of the dogs are sterilised, their population will continue to grow. The exercise has to be done consistently in a scientific manner. Even a single gap means the deed has been undone,” Visakhapatnam-based Pradeep Kumar, founder of Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals, said.

The ABC 2023 module also notes that, “While carrying out the ABC programme, sterilisations must be carried out in a well-planned, area-wise, systematic manner. Evidence suggests that ABC programmes will be most effective if undertaken area by area rather than spreading the same efforts thinly over all areas.”

The module also bats for a female-centred approach, advising that municipal bodies maintain a 70% female to 30% male dog ratio while sterilising. However, local bodies tend to flout this norm with a major focus on males.

“Male dog sterilisation operation takes hardly 10 minutes. However, for females, the process takes 25 to 40 minutes and is more costly. Also, they need one more day of rest than their male counterparts. While female dog sterilisation has proven to be more effective, there is a mismatched focus on male dogs,” Pradeep, who has been working for the dogs since 1998, explained.

Some municipalities have been trying innovative ways to streamline the process and make it more effective. For instance, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to install a microchip in all stray dogs. While activists have termed the move a violation of the ABC rules and filed a plea in the high court against it, BBMP believes the move will create a database of dogs which will facilitate the ABC process.

“Currently, we use a phone application to maintain the record of a dog. While picking up a dog, we take its picture, record its GPS data, and post-surgery, release it in the same area. However, with the microchips installed, we can create a larger database with records of each dog. The database will not only help us be more effective, but it can also be shared with the citizens and will totally resolve the relocation problem,” Vikas Suralkar Kishor, special commissioner of health and animal husbandry, BBMP, told DH.

Metropolitan cities tend to witness more efforts to control free-roaming dog populations. Activists believe that in non-urban spaces, the constraints are even higher.

“While Bengaluru is one of the districts where the municipal body is relatively effectively conducting the ABC programme, there are 30 more districts in the state. Work has to be done at the grassroots level. Several districts do not even have ABC centres. Administrative boundaries do not deter animals,” said Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, who works to promote human-animal coexistence.

Garbage dumping grounds serve as a food source for dogs — which are territorial animals — and influence their levels of aggression and distribution across an area. The Animal Birth Control, 2023 module also links accumulated waste to increased survival rate for free-roaming dogs.

“Unlicensed meat shops often throw away their waste on the road. This becomes a feast for stray dogs,” Arun said.

Rabies free by 2030

India has set an ambitious target of becoming rabies-free by 2030. Achieving this will require coordinated efforts from both the administration and citizens. A multi-pronged strategy is essential, involving rigorous implementation of the ABC programmes, collection of robust real-time data to guide policy, and effective urban waste management.

“ABC operations have to be ramped up not just in urban centres but beyond that to be able to achieve the 2030 goal. Citizens also need to come forward to adopt these stray dogs to reduce the burden on the roads,” Shrikrishna Isloor, professor and head, Department of Veterinary Biology, Veterinary College, Bengaluru, said. She added that animal lovers and feeders have to be taken into confidence to make the efforts a success.

Similar words were echoed by Priya, who said, “If you are feeding the stray dogs but are not concerned about an increase in litters of puppies or their ears not being notched, then you are part of the problem.”

The right ears of free-roaming dogs are notched after sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination as an identification mark.