Across India, a quiet public health emergency has been unfolding street by street — dog bites surging in 21 states, while the systems designed to prevent them exist largely on paper. A Supreme Court-appointed officer has now examined what states are actually doing to sterilize and vaccinate stray dogs, and found infrastructure so thin that in some places it barely registers as a response at all. The report does not merely describe a policy shortfall; it reveals the distance between a government's obligations to its people and the machinery it has actually built to fulfill them.
Dog bite cases surge across India as states lack animal control infrastructure
Rising dog bite cases across India indicate increased public health risk, though specific rabies deaths or hospitalizations are not detailed in the report.
Only 15 dogs per day per center were vaccinated in Delhi
Mark
So we're looking at dog bites going up across India. Is that because there are more stray dogs, or because people are reporting bites more often?
Mimi
The report doesn't actually say. The data just shows reported cases rising—it could be either, or both. What we do know is that the infrastructure to manage stray populations hasn't kept pace.
Luke
Right, and we should be careful here. The report documents what states submitted to the Supreme Court, not necessarily ground truth. If Bihar suddenly reports better data, that might mean better reporting, not fewer dogs.
Mark
Fair point. So what's actually broken in these programs?
Mimi
Everything. No ABC centres in Bihar. Only 7 of 115 urban bodies running programs in Odisha. Delhi's vaccinating 15 dogs a day per centre—that's not a program, that's theater.
Luke
But we don't know why. Is it money? Is it staffing? Is it that the centres exist but aren't being used? The report flags the gaps but doesn't always explain the cause.
Mark
What about the helplines? Fourteen states have them.
Mimi
They do, but most won't say how many calls they get or what happens after. Gujarat and Karnataka gave numbers—18,000 and 4,000 complaints respectively. The rest? Silent.
Luke
Which means we can't actually assess whether the helplines are working or just existing on paper. That's a real problem for the court trying to oversee this.
Mark
So what happens next?
Mimi
The court has the report now. States know they're being watched. Whether that translates to actual funding and staffing changes—that's the open question.
Luke
And whether the dog bite numbers actually come down. That's what matters to the people getting bitten.
O Pulso
- Dog bite cases have doubled, tripled, or quadrupled across major Indian states between 2022 and 2024, signaling a public health trajectory that is accelerating, not stabilizing.
- Bihar — home to 100 million people — has no dedicated Animal Birth Control center, while Delhi's 20 centers vaccinate just 15 dogs each per day, a pace the Supreme Court's own officer called 'abysmally low.'
- Vehicles, trained personnel, and functional sterilization facilities are so scarce in most states that even existing programs cannot operate at meaningful scale — West Bengal can catch between 5 and 10 dogs per day across entire districts.
- Data submitted by states to the Supreme Court was riddled with gaps and omissions, making it impossible to assess whether programs are functioning or simply being reported as functioning.
- The Supreme Court's scrutiny has forced state governments to account publicly for their failures, but resource constraints and incomplete systems mean that court pressure alone may not be enough to reverse the trend.
Across India, a quiet public health emergency has been unfolding street by street — dog bites surging in 21 states, while the systems designed to prevent them exist largely on paper. A Supreme Court-appointed officer has now examined what states are actually doing to sterilize and vaccinate stray dogs, and found infrastructure so thin that in some places it barely registers as a response at all. The report does not merely describe a policy shortfall; it reveals the distance between a government's obligations to its people and the machinery it has actually built to fulfill them.
Across India, dog bite cases have climbed sharply — Maharashtra recorded nearly 485,000 in 2024, up from 393,000 two years prior. Gujarat more than doubled its numbers. Assam quadrupled. Across at least 21 states, something is moving in the wrong direction, and a Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae has now documented why: the Animal Birth Control programs meant to sterilize and vaccinate stray dogs are, in most of the country, broken or barely operational.
The portrait that emerged from state affidavits is one of systemic inadequacy. Bihar, with a population of 100 million, has no dedicated ABC center. Odisha's program functions in only 7 of 115 urban local bodies. Delhi operates 20 centers — more than most states — yet each vaccinated just 15 dogs per day over a six-month period. In Madhya Pradesh, sterilization figures for several cities in 2025 were recorded as zero, prompting the amicus to recommend a full review of whether the state's 17 centers are functioning at all.
Vehicles compound the crisis. West Bengal has one or two dog-catching vans in most districts, capable of catching between 5 and 10 animals per day — a pace that renders sterilization efforts nearly futile. Kerala's 12 ABC vans were deemed 'totally inadequate.' Without vehicles, centers, or trained personnel deployed where they are needed, the programs cannot scale to meet the problem they are meant to solve.
The data submitted by states was itself unreliable — helplines reported with no performance metrics, veterinarian counts offered without any indication of where those veterinarians actually work. What the Supreme Court's process has accomplished is to drag into the open what state governments have long avoided confronting: the vast gap between the scale of the problem and the resources committed to addressing it. Whether judicial scrutiny translates into real funding and operational change remains to be seen. For now, the dog bite cases continue to climb.
Across India, the number of people bitten by dogs has climbed sharply in recent years, and a Supreme Court report has now documented why: the machinery meant to control stray dog populations is broken, underfunded, and in many cases barely exists at all.
The numbers tell the story. Maharashtra recorded 485,000 dog bite cases in 2024, up from 393,000 two years earlier. Tamil Nadu climbed from 364,000 to 480,000 in the same span. Gujarat more than doubled, from 169,000 to 392,000. In Bihar, cases nearly doubled from 141,000 to 263,000. Karnataka's doubled from 163,000 to 363,000. Assam's quadrupled from roughly 40,000 to 166,000. Odisha saw similar pressure, rising from 65,000 to 167,000. The data does not distinguish between bites from stray dogs and those from pets, but the scale is unmistakable: something is moving in the wrong direction across at least 21 states.
The Supreme Court's amicus curiae—an independent officer appointed to advise the court—examined what states are actually doing to manage the stray dog problem. The answer, across the board, is: not much, and not well. Every state submitted affidavits describing their Animal Birth Control programs, which are supposed to sterilize and vaccinate strays to bring the population under control. What emerged was a portrait of systemic failure.
Bihar, a state of 100 million people, has no dedicated Animal Birth Control centre at all. It operates 16 dog pounds, but the report does not even specify whether they have sterilization capacity. The amicus noted the obvious: a state of Bihar's size would need far more infrastructure than this. In Odisha, the ABC program functions in only 7 of 115 urban local bodies. West Bengal has identified organizations to run the program in just 24 of 128 local bodies. Delhi, the capital, operates 20 ABC centres—more than most states—yet over a six-month period, each centre vaccinated only 15 dogs per day. The amicus called this "abysmally low." In Madhya Pradesh, sterilization figures for several cities in 2025 were recorded as zero, prompting the court's officer to recommend a complete review of whether the state's 17 ABC centres are functioning at all.
The shortage of vehicles compounds the problem. Andhra Pradesh has 40 dog-catching vans, which the amicus suggested may not be sufficient for the state's needs. West Bengal, with only one or two vehicles in most districts, can catch between 5 and 10 dogs per day—a pace that makes vaccination and sterilization efforts nearly futile. Kerala operates 12 ABC vans, which the report deemed "totally inadequate." Without vehicles, without centres, without trained personnel deployed where they are needed, the programs cannot scale.
The data itself is unreliable. Andhra Pradesh reported 87 veterinarians but provided no information on whether they actually work in ABC centres or where they are posted. Bihar's submissions were described as "woefully insufficient," leaving unclear exactly what its veterinarians do or where its dog-catching staff are stationed. Fourteen states reported establishing helplines for citizens to report dog bite incidents or request animal control assistance. But most provided no data on how many complaints they received or resolved. Gujarat reported 18,588 complaints, claiming most were resolved. Karnataka reported 4,026 resolved immediately. Bihar, Haryana, and Jharkhand confirmed they have helplines but offered no performance metrics at all.
What the Supreme Court report has done is force into the open what state governments have long avoided: the infrastructure gap between the problem they face and the resources they have deployed to solve it. Whether the court's scrutiny will translate into actual funding, staffing, and operational change remains unclear. The states have now been put on notice that their submissions are being examined, their numbers questioned, their capacity assessed. But the dog bite cases continue to climb, and the machinery to address them remains, in most of India, inadequate to the task.
Citações Notáveis
For a huge state like Bihar, there would be a huge requirement of ABC centres— Supreme Court amicus curiae, in report on Animal Birth Control infrastructure
Abysmally low figure for a city like Delhi— Supreme Court amicus curiae, describing vaccination rate of 15 dogs per day per centre
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Leia o original em The Indian Express ↗
Politics & Governance