Data report · Updated October 2026

Dog bite and rabies statistics for India: 37 lakh bites a year, and a death count nobody agrees on

Government surveillance recorded 37,15,713 dog bite cases in India in 2024, about 10,150 a day, up from 21,89,909 in 2022. Official data counted 54 suspected human rabies deaths that year. An ICMR study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases estimates the real toll at about 5,726 deaths a year.

37.2 lakh

dog bite cases reported to IDSP in 2024, about 10,150 every day

+70%

rise in reported dog bites from 2022 to 2024

54

suspected human rabies deaths reported to IDSP in 2024

5,726

rabies deaths a year estimated by the ICMR study (range 3,967 to 7,350)

53%

share of 2024 bites from just five states

By the dogeats.in Editorial Team · Published 2026-10-10 · Updated 2026-10-10 · Free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0)

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How many dog bites happen in India every year?

India reported 37,15,713 dog bite cases in 2024, according to state data on the IDSP-IHIP portal tabled in the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2025. It works out to about 10,150 bites a day, or seven every minute.

The count has climbed every year since 2021. It rose from 21,89,909 in 2022 to 30,52,521 in 2023, then to 37,15,713 in 2024. In January 2025 alone, states logged 4,29,664 bites.

The earlier years need care. The 72,77,523 figure for 2019 was given to the Rajya Sabha as animal bite data, which includes cats, monkeys and other animals. A later Lok Sabha reply relabelled the same numbers as dog bites.

The gaps between versions are small for recent years, under 0.4%. They come from late uploads by districts. We use the 1 April 2025 annexure because it is the only one with every state for 2022 to 2024.

The ICMR figure needs explaining. The study found a dog bite rate of 5.6 per 1,000 people a year. Applied to the same population the authors used for 9.1 million animal bites, that is about 77 lakh dog bites, our calculation.

Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu lead on bites

Maharashtra reported the most dog bites in 2024, at 4,85,345. Tamil Nadu was a close second with 4,80,427, followed by Gujarat, Karnataka and Bihar. These five states logged 53% of the national total.

Some of the sharpest rises came from states that reported little in 2022. Kerala went from 4,000 to 1,15,046, which points to better reporting rather than a 28-fold jump in bites. Assam rose from 39,919 to 1,66,232.

Uttar Pradesh is the outlier in the other direction. It has the largest population and the largest street dog count in the Livestock Census, yet its reported bites fell 14% between 2022 and 2024.

Per lakh figures use the 1 March 2024 population projection of the Technical Group on Population Projections (National Commission on Population). J&K and Ladakh are shown separately, as the IDSP table does.

Bites per lakh people, state by state

Raw counts favour big states, so we also worked out bites per lakh people. Among the 21 states with over one crore people, Tamil Nadu led in 2024 at about 623 per lakh. Gujarat (543), Karnataka (531) and Assam (461) followed.

The national average was about 266 bites per lakh people. Small places such as Ladakh, Sikkim and Goa show even higher rates, above 1,000 per lakh. Tourists and migrant workers get bitten there but are not counted in the resident population.

High rates do not always mean more dogs. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka run dense networks of primary health centres that log every vaccine dose. States with weaker reporting look safer on paper.

Our street dog population report compares these rates with Livestock Census dog counts for each state.

Children and villages

Children under 15 accounted for 5,19,704 dog bites in 2024, about 14% of all reported bites, according to IHIP data given to the Lok Sabha on 4 February 2025.

The same reply split out rural areas. Villages reported 21,95,122 dog bites and 37 deaths in 2024. Other animals, including monkeys, caused 5,04,728 bites and 11 deaths in rural India.

The ICMR survey found an animal bite rate of 7.5 per 1,000 among children aged 0 to 14. People over 60 had 7.8, as reported by The South First. Men were bitten about twice as often as women, at 7.6 against 3.5 per 1,000.

How many people die of rabies in India?

Nobody knows the exact number. Official IDSP data recorded 54 suspected human rabies deaths in 2024, 50 in 2023 and 21 in 2022. Modelled estimates are about 100 times higher.

The most recent estimate comes from ICMR's National Institute of Epidemiology, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in January 2025. Surveying 3,37,808 people in 60 districts of 15 states, it estimated 5,726 deaths a year, with an uncertainty range of 3,967 to 7,350.

Older studies gave higher numbers. A 2004 national survey estimated 20,565 deaths, and a 2015 global modelling study put India at 20,847. The government's own NAPRE plan cites WHO's estimate that India accounts for 36% of global rabies deaths.

Even the official series disagrees with itself. A Lok Sabha reply on 30 July 2024 said 286 people died due to dog bite in 2023. The 2025 annexure lists 50 suspected rabies deaths for the same year.

Why the official rabies count is so low

Three things keep the official count small. Rabies is not notifiable everywhere, most deaths happen at home, and the IDSP column records only suspected deaths that a facility uploads.

The health ministry told the Lok Sabha in April 2025 that human rabies is notifiable in 23 states and UTs. A February 2025 reply put the figure at 26. In the other states, a hospital has no legal duty to report a case.

• Rabies kills after symptoms start, and families often take patients home or to faith healers. Those deaths rarely reach a district surveillance unit.
• IDSP counts suspected cases reported by health facilities. The ICMR study instead modelled deaths from bite rates, vaccine coverage and lab positivity in dogs.
• The ICMR survey found 74.8% of tested suspected rabid dogs were positive, as reported by The South First. That positivity feeds directly into the model.
• Gaps in post-exposure care drive the model up. In the survey, 20.5% of dog bite victims took no vaccine and 49.1% of those who started did not finish.

Both numbers have a use. IDSP data shows where bites are logged and rising. The ICMR estimate shows how far India is from zero deaths. Our rabies vaccine access report looks at the vaccine gaps behind those deaths.

Early figures for 2025 and 2026

We could not find a full state-wise table for 2025 in Parliament yet. On 24 March 2026, Health Minister J P Nadda told the Rajya Sabha that India sees about 58 lakh animal bites a year. About 47 lakh of them are dog bites, as reported by ETV Bharat.

State data points the same way. Tamil Nadu recorded 6.25 lakh dog bites and 34 deaths in 2025, and 2.63 lakh bites with 17 deaths in the first four months of 2026. The Supreme Court quoted these figures in its 19 May 2026 judgment.

Note the Delhi gap. MCD data counted 68,090 dog bites in 2024, while the national IDSP table shows 25,210 for Delhi. Bites treated at municipal hospitals do not always reach the central portal.

If you are bitten, wash the wound well with soap and running water and go to a government hospital the same day. Anti-rabies vaccine is free there under the National Free Drug Initiative.

Is India on track for zero rabies deaths by 2030?

India adopted the global Zero by 30 goal through the National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination, or NAPRE, launched on 28 September 2021. The goal is zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.

Progress is real but slow. The ICMR team says human rabies deaths fell about 75% over two decades. To be validated, though, a country must show no human rabies deaths for 24 months, with rabies notifiable.

Dog vaccination is the other half of the plan. NAPRE sets a target of vaccinating at least 70% of dogs in an area every year. That links rabies directly to the sterilisation and vaccination work of city corporations.

With about 5,700 estimated deaths a year and four years left, the 2030 target looks out of reach on current trends. Our ABC sterilisation coverage report tracks how far cities are from the 70% mark.

Supreme Court orders on stray dogs and bites

The Supreme Court took up the issue on its own in 2025, in a case titled City Hounded by Strays, Kids Pay Price. On 11 August 2025 a two-judge bench ordered Delhi-NCR strays into shelters. A three-judge bench modified that on 22 August 2025.

The 22 August order called a blanket pick-up from the National Capital Region incapable of practical compliance. It approved releasing sterilised and vaccinated dogs back to the place they were picked up from.

• 7 November 2025: dogs to be removed from schools, hospitals, sports complexes, bus stands and railway stations, moved to shelters after sterilisation, and not released back there.
• 7 November 2025: every government and private hospital must keep a mandatory stock of anti-rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin at all times.
• 19 May 2026: at least one fully functional ABC centre in every district, and euthanasia allowed for rabid, incurably ill or demonstrably dangerous dogs after veterinary assessment.

The judgment found the number of ABC centres grossly insufficient across states. For context on community dogs themselves, see our Indian Pariah Dog guide.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology and limitations

Dog bite and death counts by state come from Annexures I and II of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 4870 (1 April 2025). They reproduce IDSP-IHIP data as on 27 February 2025. National figures for 2019 to 2021 come from Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2822 (24 March 2023), which describes them as animal bite data.

Bites per lakh people are dogeats.in calculations. We divided each state's 2024 bites by its projected population on 1 March 2024. Projections come from the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections 2011 to 2036 (National Commission on Population).

Modelled death estimates come from the published studies named in each chart. State death figures that differ from the national table are quoted from news reports of state data and are labelled with their source.

Sources

1. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 4870, DAHD, 1 April 2025, State-wise dog bites 2022 to Jan 2025, suspected rabies deaths, NAPRE activities
2. Thangaraj et al, The Lancet Infectious Diseases 2025 (ICMR-NIE), 5,726 estimated rabies deaths, bite incidence, vaccine completion
3. National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030 (NAPRE), MoHFW and MoFAHD, Earlier burden estimates, 36% WHO share, 70% dog vaccination target, validation criteria
4. Also consulted: PIB, Lok Sabha reply on scientific management of stray dogs, 6 August 2024, Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2822, DAHD, 24 March 2023, PIB, Lok Sabha reply on menace of stray animals, 4 February 2025, Business Standard, 30 July 2024, Business Standard, 22 July 2025, Supreme Court of India, judgment of 19 May 2026, Suo Motu WP(C) 5 of 2025, PTI via The Week, 20 July 2025, Onmanorama, 10 September 2025, ETV Bharat, 24 March 2026, Daily Excelsior, 24 July 2026, PTI via The Week, 11 August 2025, The South First, WHO rabies fact sheet, Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections 2011 to 2036, National Commission on Population, PIB release 2117342, 1 April 2025.

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