India Has A Dangerous Stray Dog Epidemic

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – India is facing a growing and dangerous crisis: its streets are home to an estimated 62 million stray dogs, and the consequences are increasingly visible—and often deadly. The scale of the problem is not just a matter of civic discomfort or noise; it’s a severe public safety and health emergency.

Between 2019 and 2022, over 1.6 crore dog bite incidents were officially recorded across the country said NDTV. In 2023 alone, 30 lakh more cases were reported, with another 21.95 lakh bites already recorded in 2024. These are not mere numbers—they point to a public under siege, especially children, senior citizens, and pedestrians in both urban and rural areas.

Even more troubling is India’s global distinction: it accounts for 36% of worldwide rabies deaths, with 18,000 to 20,000 people dying from the disease every year. Despite being 100% preventable, rabies remains a lethal outcome for many Indians, largely due to gaps in dog vaccination coverage and timely access to treatment.

The problem has been that the system lacks teeth. A fundamental complication arises from the distinction between pet dogs and “community dogs”—a term for strays that receive informal care from local residents.

Pet owners are legally required to vaccinate and control their animals, but there’s no such individual accountability for community dogs. Municipal-run ABC programs, tasked with sterilizing and vaccinating stray dogs, frequently fall short due to inadequate funding, staffing, and infrastructure, particularly in smaller towns and Tier-II cities.

Additionally, unregulated feeding of strays—often well-intentioned—has led to the formation of territorial packs, triggering tension in residential areas. Conflicts between local residents and animal welfare advocates have become common, often spilling over into courtrooms and social media battles.

While India continues to grapple with its stray dog crisis, the Netherlands stands out as a remarkable success story—one that achieved near-total elimination of stray dogs and rabies without resorting to mass euthanasia, the NDTV report said. The transformation began in the 1990s, when the Dutch government launched a multi-pronged national strategy. At its core was a government funded “Collect, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return” (CNVR) program, ensuring that dogs were humanely sterilized, vaccinated, and either rehomed or returned to managed environments.

Complementing this approach were strict animal protection laws, including strong penalties for abandonment.