Stray dogs in India: the numbers, the ABC Rules, the Supreme Court and what a resident can do

How many stray dogs are there in India?

India counted 153.1 lakh (15,309,355) stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019, and every larger figure in circulation, from 52.5 million to 70 million, is an estimate built by a different method in a different year.

The official count is a headcount by enumerators, mostly veterinarians and para-veterinarians, every five years. The 20th round recorded 153.1 lakh street dogs against 171.4 lakh in 2012, a fall of 18.3 lakh, as the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying told the Lok Sabha on 2 August 2022, adding that it keeps no data on people injured by street dogs. Its district file sums to 15,304,345; the 5,010-dog gap sits entirely in Delhi, 55,462 in the file against 60,472 in the table, because 'For Delhi, 19th livestock census figures are used'. The Updated Compendium 2022-23 that several pages cite carries no dog figure, the next census was due in 2024, and no later official count appears in any document opened for this page.

Why the estimates differ from the count

Three things drive the gap. Method: an enumerator records dogs at the sites people occupy, while a mark-re-sight team walks a route at dawn on two consecutive days, marks or photographs every dog and estimates the ones it missed, which in Punjab gave 1.8 to 5.4 times the state's 2019 census figure. Year: 2019, 2016-17 and 2022-23 respectively. Definition: Punjab counted 'any dog in a public area that is not under direct human control', owned dogs on the road included. Counsel told the Supreme Court 'nearly 8 crores'; the judgment records it as a submission and adopts no figure. The scale of the problem is therefore a range, 1.5 crore counted and 5 to 7 crore estimated; the Mars report's 60.5 million homeless dogs, out of 85.61 million, is the likeliest origin of the 62 million that VOSD and Futura print without a source, and Humane World's 70 million carries no method VOSD, Understanding the root cause… Humane World for Animals.

Dog bites and rabies deaths: the reported figures and their denominators

India reported 37,15,713 dog-bite cases and 54 human rabies deaths in 2024 through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, while the ICMR's National Institute of Epidemiology estimated 5,726 rabies deaths a year in 2024, and the difference is the method, not an error.

The surveillance series, tabled in the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2025, runs 21,89,909 dog-bite cases in 2022, 30,52,521 in 2023, 37,15,713 in 2024 and 4,29,664 in January 2025, with reported rabies deaths of 21, 50, 54 and 1, as uploaded by States to the IDSP-IHIP portal as on 27 February 2025, Maharashtra (4,85,345) and Tamil Nadu (4,80,427) leading the 2024 table; the Supreme Court's order of 11 August 2025 quotes the same national figure. The estimate is a different instrument: the WHO's India office reports ICMR-NIE estimates published in 2024 of 9.1 million animal bites a year, over three-quarters by dogs, and 5,726 human rabies deaths a year, down from about 20,000 two decades earlier. Surveillance counts what a hospital enters in a portal; a mortality survey estimates the people who never reached one, and human rabies is notifiable in only 23 States and Union Territories.

India's share of world rabies deaths depends on the pair divided. The Minister of State for Health said at the NAPRE launch on 28 September 2021 that 33 percent of global rabies deaths are recorded in India; the WHO India page's own pair, about 59,000 worldwide and 5,726 in India, puts the share near a tenth, and the 36 percent that Wikipedia and NGO pages repeat rests on the older 20,000 estimate. The 2026 state figures in the judgment, Tamil Nadu's 2.63 lakh bites in four months and Karnataka's 2 lakh, are newspaper reports, and it says so. The disease itself belongs on the rabies health page; this page carries the procedure and the law.

What the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 actually require

The Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, notified as G.S.R. 193(E) on 10 March 2023 under section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, make the local authority responsible for sterilising, vaccinating and deworming street dogs and require that each dog go back to the place it was caught.

The Rules run to 22 rules and four schedules. Rule 7 sorts dogs into 'pet animals', meaning 'dogs owned and kept indoor by individuals', and 'street dogs or community owned Indian dogs or abandoned pedigreed dogs which are homeless, living on the street or within a gated campus'; Rule 8 gives the owner the duty for a pet and the local authority the duty for street animals; Rule 2(1)(j) defines a community animal as one 'for which no ownership has been claimed'.

Rule 10(1)(f) requires CCTV across the centre with recordings kept for a month, and Rule 17 requires the removed organs to be counted by a team that excludes the operating organisation, the control behind the Madhya Pradesh fake-bill report the judgment cites Supreme Court of India. The implementation gaps are the Court's finding, not the text's: the framework 'has remained largely deficient in its execution across several jurisdictions'.

The Supreme Court's orders on stray dogs, in date order

The order that governs today is the judgment of 19 May 2026 in Suo Motu Writ Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 2025, 2026 INSC 506, read with the orders of 22 August and 7 November 2025 that it keeps in force; the 11 August 2025 direction to hold every captured dog in a shelter has been in abeyance since 22 August 2025.

The 11 August order's paragraph 12 had five directions: round up dogs from 'all localities', build shelters, never release the relocated dogs, sterilise and immunise them but hold them, and do it all at once. Eleven days later the three-judge bench wrote that Rule 11(19) 'clearly provides' for release to the same locality, that a blanket impounding order 'may lead to a catch-22 situation because such directions may be impossible to comply with', and kept the no-release direction 'in abeyance for the time being'.

Which order governs today, and why

Headlines still say the Court ordered all stray dogs into shelters; the judgment says the opposite for streets, describing the 11 August order as one that 'effectively obviated the principles underlying Rule 11(19)' and confining the no-release rule to 'institutional premises or other restricted-access areas'. Where a report and the judgment differ, the judgment wins; paragraph 109 directs 'strict and faithful compliance' with the 22 August and 7 November orders alongside its own, and paragraph 111 lets a High Court 'expand or tailor' the directions without diluting them.

What the 19 May 2026 judgment decides

The judgment holds that a dog found inside a school, hospital, sports complex, airport, bus stand or railway station is not a street dog under Rule 7(2) of the ABC Rules and gets no re-release under Rule 11(19), while dogs on public streets keep the capture, sterilise, vaccinate and release model.

The bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N.V. Anjaria reasoned from the parent Act: section 2(i) defines a street as a space 'to which the public have access', so 'same place or locality' in Rule 11(19) 'must therefore be confined to public streets and other analogous open-access areas' (paragraph 45), and 'gated campus' in Rule 7(2) 'cannot be read in a manner that legitimises or perpetuates the presence of stray dogs' in hospitals, schools, colleges, sports complexes and airports (paragraph 43). Counsel urged extension to 'gated housing societies and residential complexes', parks and marketplaces (paragraphs 35 and 37); the Court instead told each State to 'take an informed and reasoned decision regarding the extension of the directions issued by this Court to other public spaces characterised by high footfall and public utility' (108(D)), so inside a housing society the ABC Rules and the 22 August 2025 feeding conditions still govern.

The operative directions of paragraph 108

1. One ABC centre per district. 'At least one fully functional Animal Birth Control Centre in each district', with staff, surgery, records and periodic reporting (108(B)), after 'decisive, coordinated and time-bound steps' on capacity (108(A)).
2. The AWBI SOP binds. Authorities 'shall also strictly comply with the Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India' (108(C)).
3. Vaccine stock. 'Adequate availability of anti-rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin in all Government medical facilities' (108(F)).
4. Euthanasia, narrowly. Measures 'including euthanasia in cases involving rabid, incurably ill or demonstrably dangerous/aggressive dogs', only after assessment by qualified veterinary experts and strictly under the PCA Act and the ABC Rules (108(H)).
5. Officials protected, and liable. No FIR 'shall ordinarily be initiated' against officials acting in good faith (108(I)); erring officials face contempt, disciplinary and tortious liability (paragraph 98).

Two findings bear on feeders and NGOs. A group feeding dogs inside an educational campus must file an affidavit with the head of the institution accepting tortious liability for bites, 'failing which no such activity of maintaining or feeding stray dogs shall be permitted within the institutional premises' (paragraph 74), the model being NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, whose Animal Law Centre may run capture, sterilise, vaccinate and release inside its campus 'on an experimental basis' against such an undertaking (paragraph 73); and the Court, citing a Mandla report of 795 stockpiled reproductive organs and fake bills, required 'rigorous and comprehensive due diligence' before any ABC contract with an NGO (paragraphs 66 and 67). The AWBI's SOP of 27 November 2025 is quoted here only as the Court summarised it, because the Board's PDF returned HTTP 200 on 18 September 2026 but extracted to 277 characters across 13 pages, an image scan; per the judgment it covers shelters, feeding protocols, waste, nodal officers, fencing, removal and relocation, and extends to 'religious places, children's parks, airports, helipads, seaports, tourist sites and recreational areas' (paragraph 78).

How to get a community dog sterilised and vaccinated

To get a community dog sterilised and vaccinated, ask the local authority's ABC centre or its Animal Complaint Cell for a pick-up, because Rule 8(2) makes that authority responsible and Rule 5 bars anyone without an AWBI Certificate of Project Recognition from doing the surgery.

1. Find the recognised centre. The AWBI's list of organisations and municipal corporations granted ABC Project Recognition runs to 105 entries, the latest dated 19 June 2026. If your city is absent, the local authority must still act under Rule 8(2), and the judgment requires a centre in every district.
2. Check the dog first. A V-notch on the right ear means it has been sterilised and immunised (Rule 11(16)); a dog under six months, or a mother with a litter under two months, will not be taken (Rule 11(9)).
3. Call or write to the local authority. Rule 16 lets it run an Animal Helpline, and the 22 August 2025 order requires every municipal authority to keep a dedicated helpline number. Give the locality, the number of dogs and how many are unnotched.
4. Expect notice, then the routine. Rule 11(3) requires public notices before a drive; at the centre each dog gets a numbered collar (11(8)), fasts twelve hours before surgery (11(14)), is operated on by a veterinarian (11(15)), is notched (11(16)) and stays at least four days (11(17)).
5. Expect release at the same spot. Rule 11(19) requires release 'at the same place or locality from where they were captured', recorded and witnessed; a dog taken from a school or hospital compound is the exception Supreme Court of India.
6. Volunteer if you feed. Rule 20(1)(iv) lets designated feeders 'volunteer for the vaccination, catching and release of dogs'.

There is no fee for a resident. Rule 10(2) says the local authority 'shall reimburse the expenses of sterilisation or immunisation on a regular basis' when it engages an organisation, and the only rupee figure in the Rules is the Rs 5,000 recognition fee an organisation pays the Board; a group charging residents per dog is a private service, and without a certificate it breaches Rule 5. The annual rabies booster afterwards follows the dog vaccination schedule, and the Indian pariah dog page describes the landrace most free-ranging dogs in India belong to.

What a feeder may and may not do

A feeder may feed community dogs at a spot and time the residents' association or local body has designated under Rule 20, and may not feed on the street, because the Supreme Court's order of 22 August 2025 says 'under no condition shall the feeding of stray dogs on the streets be permitted'.

Rule 20(1) puts the duty on the Resident Welfare Association, the Apartment Owners' Association or the local body's representative to 'make necessary arrangement for feeding of community animals' with the residents who feed them: spots 'mutually agreed upon' away from play areas, gates and staircases, times when children and senior citizens are least about, no littering, and the feeder's right to volunteer for vaccination, catching and release. The 22 August 2025 order added dedicated feeding spaces in every ward, a helpline for reporting feeding elsewhere, and liability for street feeding, because food availability on roads 'creates great difficulties for the common man walking on the streets'.

Colony Animal Caretaker authorisation, delegated to the districts since 1 March 2026

On 1 March 2026 the AWBI delegated Colony Animal Caretaker (CACT) authorisation: the district's Chief Veterinary Officer, Deputy Director or Animal Husbandry Officer 'may issue the letter of authorization as CACT, based on the local requirement', must decide within one month, and may reject 'keeping in view the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court regarding restrictions on feeding in public places', with an appeal to the State Animal Welfare Board. The form asks for name, address, contact number, Aadhaar and one photo identity document, and the authorisation lapses if a quarterly compliance report is missed.

The authorisation letter's own conditions are listed below.

• Feed inside a housing society only at a designated place away from the main building, and in a public garden only at a corner away from the walking trail.
• Use steel or aluminium bowls, pick them up after feeding, clean the spot, and scoop and bin any faeces.
• Feed at the same site and the same time every day.
• Keep no food or water on staircase landings or outside doors and gates; feed on no newspaper, plastic or bare ground; feed nowhere near water or septic tanks.
• Assist the district administration with food, water, shelter and veterinary help, and assist the ABC Rules at a recognised centre.

The letter 'may not be considered as an authorization for conducting search, seizure or raids', and inside an educational campus a feeding group needs the liability affidavit the judgment requires Supreme Court of India. In turn, Rule 20 calls feeding 'a compassionate gesture' and seats the feeder on the dispute committee, and Rule 22 makes any local bye-law harsher than the Rules 'of no effect'. The companionship the ranking essays describe, named dogs fed by the same people daily, with The Conversation citing a 2019 Chennai study of attachment to particular dogs across income groups, is what the Rules call a community animal and what the CACT letter turns into a signed duty Animal Welfare Board of India.

How an RWA dispute over dogs is handled

An RWA dispute over feeding or the presence of community dogs goes to the Animal Welfare Committee that Rule 20(2) of the ABC Rules requires, a seven-member body whose decision on the feeding point is final, with an appeal to the State Animal Welfare Board under Rule 20(3).

The committee is formed 'where there is any conflict between the Resident Welfare Association or Apartment Owner Association and the animal caregivers or other residents': the Chief Veterinary Officer or a representative, one of the jurisdictional police, one of the district SPCA or State Board, one of a recognised ABC organisation, a veterinary officer of the local authority, the complainant, and a representative of the RWA, AOA or local body. It may nominate a Board-designated Colony Care Taker to feed the animals, and any party aggrieved may appeal to the State Board, whose decision is final for feeding in that area.

The pet-or-community question decides the rulebook. A dog 'owned and kept indoor by individuals' is a pet under Rule 7(1), its owner responsible under Rule 8(1), with the municipal licence covered in the dog registration guide Ministry of Fisheries. A dog nobody claims that lives in the compound is a community animal under Rules 2(1)(j) and 7(2): the society's duty is the feeding arrangement, not removal, since relocating it is outside Rule 11(19) and the Court's carve-out named institutions, not residential societies.

A resident who wants a dog off the street lawfully has one route, adoption. The 22 August 2025 order lets 'the desirous animal lover/s' apply to the municipal body, which tags the dog and gives it in adoption, and makes the adopter responsible for ensuring 'that the adopted stray dogs do not return to the streets'; the compliance format asks every State to report its adoption mechanism (item 27) Supreme Court of India. Obstructing an authorised catching team is prosecutable under the same order, so a dispute ends in a committee decision or an adoption, never a private removal.

NAPRE 2030: the national plan behind the rules

NAPRE 2030 is the National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination from India by 2030, a Health Ministry guidance document built on the goal of 'Zero human deaths due to dog-mediated Rabies by 2030' and pursued through 'sustained mass dog vaccinations, pre and post exposure prophylaxis and public education'.

The programme's page calls the plan 'a guidance document for the states / stakeholders to develop their own action plan, specific to their needs', with human health run by the National Centre for Disease Control and animal health assigned to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Five states, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu, had launched State Action Plans by April 2025 and eleven more were 'yet to launch'.

Two official pages disagree on the launch date. The About NAPRE page says the ministers unveiled it on 'World Rabies Day i.e. 28th September 2023'; the Press Information Bureau's release of 28 September 2021 reports the same ministers unveiling it that day, and the Lok Sabha answer of 1 April 2025 also says 2021 Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question No. 4870. This page takes 2021, on two dated documents against one undated sentence.

Where the plan meets the street is the ABC centre. The Government's stated position is that 'intensive implementation of the Animal Birth Control program by local bodies is the only rational and scientific solution'; the Court's finding is that ABC centres are 'grossly insufficient' and the remedy is one centre per district plus a 28-item report covering dogs sterilised and vaccinated, budget and feeding spaces per ward. A ranking page counts 76 accredited sterilisation centres and calls removing dogs impractical; the AWBI's own list holds 105 recognised projects, and removal is not what the judgment orders for streets Animal Welfare Board of India. What a resident can watch is simple: the next Supreme Court date is 17 November 2026, each State's affidavit was due by 7 August 2026, and the AWBI's circular of 21 July 2026 asked Chief Secretaries for 'personal intervention' to meet it. That format is where the next honest count of India's free-ranging dogs will come from.

What to do after a dog bite

After a dog bite, wash the wound with soap and running water for at least 15 minutes, go to a hospital the same day for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, and report the dog to the local authority's animal helpline so it is caught and observed for ten days.

1. Wash for 15 minutes. The WHO fact sheet says a bitten or scratched person 'should immediately and always wash the wound with water and soap for at least 15 minutes and seek medical attention'.
2. Go to a Government hospital or a Model Anti-Rabies Clinic. Vaccine and immunoglobulin are supplied to government facilities under the National Free Drug Initiative, 279 Model Anti-Rabies Clinics opened in the three years to February 2025, and the Court has ordered every hospital to keep 'a mandatory stock of anti-rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin at all times'.
3. Let the doctor grade the exposure. WHO category I is a lick on intact skin (wash only), II a scratch without bleeding (wash and vaccinate), III any bite that breaks the skin (wash, vaccinate and immunoglobulin); the doctor who sees the wound decides.
4. Report the dog. Rule 16 requires the complaint recorded in a register, shared 'promptly' with the Government hospital, and the dog caught and observed at the ABC centre, isolated if rabies is likely and released after ten days if not.
5. Call the rabies helpline where it operates. The National Rabies Control Programme's toll-free helpline 15400 covers Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Puducherry and Delhi so far, with first-aid advice and the nearest facility holding vaccine; its website also lists 0120-6025400.

Human rabies is notifiable in 23 States and Union Territories, and the compliance format annexed to the judgment asks every State to report a helpline number for dog-bite incidents (item 25), so a municipal bite line is now a reportable obligation. Your own doctor decides the vaccine course for you.