A new report warns that without reliable figures on the number of free-ranging dogs in Delhi-NCR, municipal authorities cannot plan shelters, sterilisation capacity, or effective implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023.
The study by the Esya Centre, a New Delhi-based think tank, argues that an accurate census is central to reducing human-animal conflict.
The ABC Rules set out how the government aims to manage stray populations through vaccination and sterilisation, yet estimates for Delhi-NCR range widely from 300,000 to one million dogs.
Citing government data, the authors noted there were 126 rabies-related deaths nationally but none in Delhi between 2022 and 2025.
Even so, they stressed that the numbers “require further qualification,” since rabies can also spread through other mammals including monkeys and cows.
“Without a concrete figure, it is impossible for municipal authorities to plan for the creation of capacity for either shelters or sterilisation,” the authors wrote, calling a census “essential” to making the ABC programme work.
The Supreme Court on November 7 directed that stray dogs be moved to designated shelters after an uptick in dog-bite incidents in institutional areas.
Author of the report Meghna Bal, director of the Esya Centre, told PTI, "People in the community who have a direct line of sight on the number of dogs in areas they feed can be co-opted to support census efforts." "We found through our surveys that most are willing to support efforts under the ABC programme. They can create logs or registers of the animals under their care or in their community," she said.
The team surveyed over a thousand residents across 10 cities in India to understand public attitudes towards community dogs and population-management measures such as sterilisation or vaccination.
Nearly 75 per cent of the respondents described the temperament of free-ranging dogs in their neighbourhood as "friendly", 15 per cent "timid", and about 10-11 per cent "aggressive", the authors said.
"These perceptions suggest that, for a majority of people, coexistence with community dogs is not marked by conflict but by familiarity and ease," they wrote.
Further, over 90 per cent of the respondents reported that free-ranging dogs function as an effective deterrent against criminal activity -- over 52 per cent of these felt that the presence of a dog helps keep women and children safe, the authors found.
The authors also called for a "greater granularity in India's dog bite data." Without distinguishing between pet and free-ranging dog bites, policy responses could be misdirected, potentially leading to interventions that are costly, ineffective, or detrimental to community animal welfare, the team said.
Instances of dog bites continue to be reported from around the country.
Earlier this month, at least 40 people were bitten by stray dogs in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district over two days, while 24 in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, were affected. On November 8, a two-year-old girl sustained injuries after being repeatedly bitten in Thane, Maharashtra.
