Urban Menace: Free-ranging dogs are a dogged problem in Indian cities; here is why

On the morning of April 11, 2023, Adersh left for the market and never returned home. At night, the police recovered his body from the playground of Shastri Nagar Intermediate College in Maharajganj, Uttar Pradesh.

The 11-year-old had died after being attacked by a pack of stray dogs in the middle of the day. The dogs had bitten off his right hand and mauled his face.

A similar incident was reported in Hyderabad this February, when stray dogs killed a four-year-old playing in the parking area of a car service centre where his father worked as a security guard. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera, and the video has since gone viral.

India recorded 1.92 million dog-bites in 2022, or an average of 5,200 incidents a day. In 2019, before COVID-19 pandemic gripped the country, dog-bite incidents were 7.28 million. Owing to the rising menace, India made reporting of all rabies cases in humans mandatory in 2021, and the figure jumped to 47,291 from 733 in 2020.

Rabies is a viral disease that infects the central nervous system. “Once clinical symptoms appear, rabies is virtually 100% fatal,” says the World Health Organization (WHO).

Children under 15 years account for 40 per cent of the deaths in Asia and Africa, says WHO, adding that vaccinating dogs, including puppies, is the most cost-effective strategy for preventing rabies.

In India, 96 per cent of the mortality and morbidity due to rabies is associated with dog bites, as per the National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination from India by 2030, released in 2021 by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). NCDC classifies rabies as a neglected zoonotic disease endemic in all states/Union Territories except Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

While the government maintains that India saw only 55 rabies deaths in 2021, a research paper released in January 2023 says human deaths due to rabies are much higher at 20,000 a year.

“India contributes approximately one-third of global rabies burden annually. The incidence is high and grossly under-reported due to lack of awareness of preventive measures, poor knowledge of post-exposure prophylaxis, irregular supplies and lack of affordability of anti-rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins and weak surveillance system,” says the paper, “Cost analysis of implementation of a population level rabies control programme for children in India”, published in the journal Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health.

In October 2022, a pan-India survey by media platform LocalCircles claimed that over 60 per cent of the residents who participated felt dog attacks were rising in their locality.

To address the problem, on May 10, 2023, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Goel organised a meeting of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Delhi. The meeting, attended by over 500 people, was allegedly gatecrashed by animal lovers, and ended after two women from opposing groups started assaulting each other.

Unnatural Advantage

India has a tradition of feeding leftover food to stray animals. Kalidas, in his play Mrichchhakatikam, says people should feed leftover food to dogs, says Anindita Bhadra, associate professor at the Dog Lab in the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Kolkata.

But the practice has changed she says, and in last two decades or so, animal lovers have started to treat stray dogs as homeless people. “They are now being fed, given shelter and even blankets. This trend of people going out of their way to feed stray dogs could be responsible for the aggressive traits,” Bhadra says. Dogs are territorial and if they get assured food, they become even more protective about their territory, she adds.

There is another problem. Usually, only 19 per cent puppies survive to become adults. Their survival rate goes up when humans start to take care of them. This could explain why the population of dogs in India has not gone down even 20 years after the country launched its drive to sterilise street dogs.

In 2001, India released the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The Rules, which were updated in March 2023, broadly classify dogs into pets and stray, and hold the pet owner responsible for sterilising and vaccinating their dogs.

In the case of a stray, the onus lies with the local administration. The Rules say that euthanasia can only happen if the dog is terminally ill, not for population control. Even a dog with rabies cannot be euthanised, and must be isolated for a natural death, which occurs in 10 days. The ABC Rules also say that stray dogs captured for sterilising or vaccination need to be returned to their earlier habitat.

This is the reason courts have, over the years, rejected all pleas requesting the culling or relocation of stray dogs. In September 2022, the Kerala government unsuccessfully moved Supreme Court to allow euthanasia or culling of “violent” and “vicious” stray dogs suspected of rabies.

The state argued that when there is a zoonotic disease outbreak, culling of animals or birds is undertaken to prevent the spread, and the same must apply to “violent” dogs. The state had, in 2017, also requested the apex court to allow “stray dog zoos” in districts.

Several RWAs have unsuccessfully approached lower courts to find solutions. The only exception was seen in August 2020, when the Allahabad high court issued directives for the removal of stray cattle and dogs from Prayagraj city. The directives were squashed by the Supreme Court after BJP leader Maneka Gandhi claimed it was against the law.

Likely to fail, again

The 2023 ABC Rules now recognise community dogs and say the responsibility of vaccinating and sterilising them lies with the RWA. The Rules specify that feeding zones for such dogs should be kept away from children’s play area and entry and exit points. Experts feel the latest revisions are unlikely to help because the problem lies elsewhere.

In 2023, Delhi-based lawyer Shaalini Agrawal, along with Khushbu Sainani, a junior research fellow, studied the condition of 20 ABC centres under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. These are centres where stray animals are kept for sterilisation and vaccination.

They found that many centres were operating without night staff to look after the dogs. Some were overcrowded and unhygienic with no ventilation, did not follow protocols, or were cutting corners to maximise profits. The centres did not tag sterilised dogs for identification, even though the Rules mention this.

Such flouting of the Rules means sterilisation of dogs is much lower than what is being claimed. Agrawal filed a Right to Information application and found that one of the centres in Delhi procured 1,000 doses of vaccine since February 2022, but claimed to have carried out over 3,700 sterilisations between 2022 and 2023.

Agrawal summarises that effective implementation of the ABC programme is the key to achieve dog population control. “The only effective and legal solution to dog population management is a well monitored animal birth control program. Any other method more irksome to the animals including culling or relocation would be unlawful and such a policy would be void as per Rule 22 of the ABC rules 2023 read with Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960,” she said.

However, other experts differ in the opinion. 

“The policy to control stray dogs is flawed. Even after 20 years, dog population continues to rise,” says Abi T Vanak, senior fellow at non-profit Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology & the Environment, Bengaluru.

Varying voices

While there is a consensus about the current crisis, the suggested solution differs among animal lovers and others. Ryan Lobo from Bengaluru-based non-profit True Conservation Alliance promotes culling of dogs.

“Unwanted dogs are humanely euthanised the world over. In the Netherlands, unowned free-ranging dogs that are sick or aggressive are euthanised.”

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil also says that culling makes ecological and economic sense. “Due to uncontrolled growth, they are becoming invasive. In states like Mizoram and Manipur and in several south Asian countries, people traditionally consume dog meat,” he adds.

Radhika Suryavanshi of non-profit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)-India, contests the idea of culling and says it was in practice in India before the sterilisation drive began.

“Had the ABC rules been implemented in their true spirit, India’s dog population would already have been regulated,” she says. Suryavanshi warns that there are examples to suggest that culling makes people violent.

Researchers from Teesside University, UK, looked at Eastern European communities with large stray dog populations, where such animals were attacked, roughly rounded up, and poisoned or killed in some other cruel ways, and found a link to domestic violence.

Vanak says India must take unpopular choices such as implementing stringent pet ownership laws and prohibitions on feeding in public places. “India should set up dog shelters and funnel the ABC budget for it,” he adds.

Vineeta Srinandan, a resident of NRI Complex in Navi Mumbai, agrees. “We have a dedicated enclosure for stray dogs outside our society. They are fed and taken for a walk. Their number has dropped from 38 a few years ago to seven now.”

Read more

• Free-ranging dogs: Official population control programme is failing in Ladakh (and rest of India); here is why
• Human flux affects stray dog behaviour in India: IISER study
• India’s wildlife is under threat from free roaming dogs

This article is part of a cover story first published in the 16-30 June, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth

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