There are nearly 1.71 crore stray dogs in the country, according to the 19th livestock census 2012, the Government said on Friday.
Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma in a written reply in lok Sabha said that while 25,10,169 stray dogs remained in urban areas, in rural parts of the country, the number was 1,46,28,180.
The total number of stray dogs including urban and rural areas is 1,71,38,349, Sharma said referring to the 19th livestock Census Report-2012 by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture.He said the National Rabies Control Programme is being implemented in Hisar and Gurgaon divisions of Haryana on pilot basis.
Animal Birth Control (ABC) surgeries and Anti Rabies (AR) vaccination are being done under the National Rabies Control Programme to control and prevent human deaths due to rabies, he added.He said in the last three years, 74,520 ABC surgeries and 1,89,300 AR vaccinations have been done.
Among the states, Sikkim in the northeast is an outlier: it is rabies-free after all its strays have been neutered, thanks to a successful government-run sterilisation programme.
In 2015, Global Alliance for Rabies Control reported that India accounted for 35 per cent of human rabies deaths, more than any other country. Globally, around 59,000 people die every year from rabies transmitted by dogs, with the poorer regions of the world worst affected, as per the report.
Rabies is a fatal viral infection which is almost 100 per cent preventable. The infection can infect all mammals, but domestic dogs cause more than 99 per cent of all human deaths from rabies, the report said.