Pets in Bengaluru, 2026: 2,79,335 street dogs at 72 percent sterilised, 18,140 dog bites in five months, 18 round-the-clock clinics, one animal crematorium, and a pet licence drafted five times and notified never

Pets in Bengaluru: the city's numbers on one page

No single document describes pet life in Bengaluru. Fourteen figures, from nine sources, come close.

Two of those rows carry the weight. Bengaluru is the only Indian city whose street dog survey found more than 70 percent of dogs sterilised, the working target under the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, which make the local body responsible for sterilising and vaccinating its street dogs through recognised organisations, and its count fell 9.88 percent between 2019 and 2023. And yet the city's dog bite cases rose 55 percent in the first five months of 2026, to 18,140. The rest of this report is about how both can be true at once.

2,79,335 street dogs, 71.81 percent of them neutered: the 2023 survey, zone by zone

The 2023 survey is the best count of street dogs any Indian city has published, and its zone table is where the city's dog problem actually lives.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike surveyed every ward in July and August 2023 by sight-resight, the method the national rabies plan prescribes, and estimated 2,79,335 street dogs, 1,65,341 of them male, 82,757 female and 31,237 of unrecorded sex, across 712.55 square kilometres, or 392 dogs per square kilometre. The city's previous survey, in 2019, had found 3,09,975, itself a steep rise from the 1,85,000 of a 2013 count, and only 51 percent of the 2019 dogs had been through the Animal Birth Control programme. Four years later the count was down 9.88 percent and the neutered share was up to 71.81 percent.

Mahadevapura holds 58,341 dogs, one in five of the city's, and is the only zone where fewer than 60 percent are neutered, at 59.34 percent. It is also the largest zone by area, 169.71 square kilometres of the IT corridor, so its density of 344 dogs per square kilometre is below the city average; the problem there is scale, not crowding. RR Nagar (41,266 dogs, 67.64 percent neutered) and Yelahanka (36,343, 66.50 percent) are the other two zones below the 70 percent line. West zone has the fewest dogs per zone after Dasarahalli and the highest neutered share, 79.48 percent; Dasarahalli packs 21,221 dogs into 27.83 square kilometres, 763 per square kilometre, nearly twice the city average.

What the survey does not settle

The 2023 figure is what the Deccan Herald's June 2026 editorial still called 'an estimated stray dog population of almost three lakh', and the BBMP itself used 2.7 lakh when it tendered a feeding contract in July 2025. A sight-resight survey counts the dogs that enumerators can see on the day; the national census method behind Karnataka's 11,41,173 stray dogs of 2019 asks village and ward enumerators to estimate, and the two cannot be added. Bonbeno's street dog report sets Bengaluru's survey beside Mumbai's, Chennai's and the census. What the zone table does settle is where the next 75,000 surgeries should go: the three zones below the line hold 1,35,950 dogs, nearly half the city's.

Dog bites: 18,140 cases in five months of 2026, 42 percent of them by pet dogs, and 9 rabies deaths in the district in half a year

Bengaluru's bite numbers are reported in pieces, by the civic body, the state surveillance unit and the courts. Lined up, they rise.

Bengaluru recorded 18,140 dog bite cases between January and May 2026, against 11,647 in the same months of 2025, a rise of 55 percent, and pet dogs were responsible for nearly 42 percent of them. The city's civic records had shown 17,610 bites in 2021-22, 19,770 in 2022 and 15,285 in the first nine months of 2023, with the East zone (4,109) and West zone (3,654) highest and Dasarahalli (659) and RR Nagar (871) lowest. Asianet's July 2025 tally from BBMP data put the city at more than 20,000 stray dog attacks a year and 1.01 lakh cases from 2020-21 to September 2024-25.

The state's surveillance unit counts differently and higher. Karnataka registered 2,31,091 dog bite cases and 19 rabies deaths between 1 January and 30 June 2025, up 36 percent on the same months of 2024; BBMP limits were the second-largest reporting unit in the state with 13,831 cases, after Vijayapura's 15,527, and Bangalore Urban district outside the BBMP added 8,878 and Bangalore Rural 4,408. Of the 19 deaths, nine were in Bangalore Urban. By August the state count had reached 2.86 lakh bites and 26 suspected rabies deaths for the year. For the whole of 2024, the IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha shows Karnataka at 3,61,494 bites, 531 per lakh of population, more than double its 2022 figure, with 5 rabies deaths; the state unit told PTI the 2024 toll was 42 deaths. The two figures come from different reporting chains, and this report prints both rather than choosing.

What a bite costs the city, and the victim

In 2022 the government's Epidemic Diseases Hospital alone recorded six rabies deaths from within BBMP limits, the youngest an eleven-year-old. In August 2025, after a 68-year-old man was mauled to death outside his home in Kodigehalli, the Karnataka Lokayukta ordered the BBMP to set up observation centres in every ward; the civic body replied that an observation home for 40 to 50 dogs was nearing completion in Yelahanka. The compensation scale BBMP publishes runs from Rs 2,000 a wound for scratches and Rs 3,000 for deep wounds to Rs 50,000 for a child and Rs 1 lakh for an adult in the gravest cases, and Asianet reported that of more than 40,000 people bitten over two years only 20 had been paid. Bonbeno's dog bite report carries every state's rate; Karnataka's 531 bites per lakh is the third highest among the large states, behind Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

The Animal Birth Control programme: eight centres, Rs 120 crore in eight years, a 75,000-dog target and an audit that found 6,799

Bengaluru's sterilisation programme is older, better funded and better measured than any other city's. In 2026 the state's own minister asked what it had bought.

The BBMP started its Animal Birth Control programme in 2007, runs it through eight zonal centres staffed by Animal Welfare Board-recognised NGOs, sets monthly targets of 600 sterilisations and 600 vaccinations per zone in five of the eight (300 in two smaller ones, 450 in one), and docks the contractor Rs 150 a dog when 90 percent of the target is missed. The 2022-23 budget put about Rs 15 crore into sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination together; the vaccination programme, separate since 2020, reached 94,192 dogs in 2020-21 and 1.7 lakh in 2021-22, roughly 30 and 54 percent of the 2019 dog count against the 70 percent the WHO regards as protective. By 2025 the civic body was spending about Rs 9 crore a year on sterilisation and Rs 5.18 crore on anti-rabies vaccination.

In July 2024 the BBMP temporarily shut three of the eight centres and sterilisation 'rolled to a halt'. The 2025-26 budget, presented on 29 March 2025 at a total outlay of Rs 19,930 crore, then set out the largest animal programme the city has announced: neuter 75,000 dogs, give combined vaccination to more than 1,80,000, allocate Rs 60 crore for 'the maintenance of street dogs', and extend the street-dog microchipping pilot across the city, with two new centres at Bommanahalli and Mahadevapura costed at Rs 7.5 crore and an observation centre for aggressive dogs at Yelahanka. Mahadevapura is the zone with the lowest neutered share in the 2023 survey, so at least one of the new centres is where the table says it should be.

The June 2026 audit

On 30 June 2026 the Bengaluru development minister told reporters that nearly Rs 120 crore had been spent over eight years to sterilise around three lakh street dogs, that 'there is a genuine doubt about which dogs were actually sterilised', and that only 6,799 dogs had been sterilised so far under the current programme; he set a target of 90,000 in the next six months and said 90,000 a year for three years was what a long-term solution would take. The arithmetic behind his doubt is in the survey: three lakh surgeries against a population that was 3.1 lakh in 2019 and 2.8 lakh in 2023 should have left almost nothing to catch, and the 2023 enumerators still found 28 percent of dogs un-notched. The explanation the Deccan Herald's 2023 reporting offered, from the modelling of the Ashoka Trust's Abi Vanak, is that street dogs live three to five years and sterilised dogs are replaced by new ones unless 90 percent are done in a short burst, not over a decade.

Veterinary care: a government network built for cattle and shrinking, and 55 private clinics of which 18 never close

Bengaluru's public veterinary hospitals are sized to its cattle, which are leaving. Its dogs and cats are treated, overwhelmingly, by private clinics that no government table counts.

In December 2023 the state's animal husbandry department ordered the closure of a key veterinary hospital and 26 clinics in Bengaluru, 24 in the city and three in Anekal taluk, citing a cattle population below 1,000 in parts of the city against the national norm of one centre for every 5,000 animals, and reallocating the staff to districts with growing herds. Before the order Bengaluru Urban had 101 government veterinary facilities, including a super-speciality hospital; after it, about 70, 18 of them hospitals, in a state with 4,234 centres. The Jayanagar hospital alone was treating more than 1,500 animals a month, a large share of them street dogs brought by volunteers. Karnataka as a whole had 4,254 government veterinary institutions on 31 March 2024, 5,082 registered veterinarians and 1,136 of its 3,317 sanctioned doctor posts vacant, 34.2 percent; Bonbeno's Vet Access Index ranks the state 23rd of 35 on livestock per vet.

The state's mobile veterinary service is the other public layer. Karnataka's 1962 helpline, launched on 5 August 2023, runs 275 mobile units that work from 9 am to 5 pm with a call centre open round the clock, and had treated five lakh animals in its first 19 months: 3.3 lakh cattle, 86,000 sheep, 50,000 goats, 29,000 buffaloes, 1,000 pigs and 4,000 others. Dogs and cats are not among the categories it reports, which is the point: the vans are a livestock service, as the central scheme that funds them intends.

The private layer: where the 24-hour clinics are

Bonbeno's vet directory for Bengaluru, each entry checked against its Google listing on 16 October 2026 for an address, a live phone number and the hours the clinic itself publishes, lists 55 clinics, 18 of which publish 24-hour opening and 33 of which call themselves hospitals; 40 have a website, 34 are rated 4.5 or higher, and 45,374 Google reviews sit behind an average rating of 4.56, the second-highest total of the eight cities Bonbeno covers. Thirty-two of the 55 list surgery, 27 diagnostics, 26 grooming, 25 vaccination and 16 emergency care. The round-the-clock cover clusters in the south and east: Bellandur, Kasavanahalli, HSR Layout, Koramangala, Domlur, Indiranagar, Jayanagar and Bannerghatta Road each have at least one listed 24-hour clinic, and the chains that raised money in 2025 and 2026, Vetic, Dr Doodley, Crown Vet and Cessna Lifeline, are among them. Bengaluru's 18 round-the-clock clinics are the most of the eight cities in the directory, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad; Hyderabad lists 14, Kolkata 12, Mumbai 5 and Chennai 2.

The Google Maps pull for 'pet grooming' on 2 November 2026 returned 100 listings of which 9 are classed as veterinary clinics, and the 'pet boarding' pull 2 more; the boarding pull is also where 31 of 100 listings claim 24-hour opening, which for a kennel is a plausible claim and for a groomer is usually a default nobody edited. What a visit costs is in Bonbeno's guide to what a vet visit costs in India, and the emergency routine in pet first aid at home.

Shops, groomers, boarders and cafes: 340 Google Maps listings, and the 2023 raid that found 1,344 animals in 44 pet shops

The trade in and around pets is easiest to see on a map. Four pulls of the first results for four searches give its shape.

Of the first 100 Google Maps results for 'pet shop' in Bengaluru, 71 are pet stores or pet supply stores, 17 are aquarium, bird or reptile shops, 11 are clinics, groomers, boarders or breeders and one is not a pet business; ten were marked temporarily closed, the most of the eight cities Bonbeno pulled, and 18 names advertise live animals for sale. The chains are thin: Heads Up For Tails twice, JUSTDOGS, Zigly, Supertails and Pet Supermarket once each. Three in four rated pet businesses score 4.5 or higher and 37 percent of listings have a website. Bonbeno's pet shops report puts this layer beside the registration record: Karnataka's High Court gave every pet shop and breeder three months to register with the State Animal Welfare Board in February 2020, and no count of how many did has been published.

What a registration drive looks like in Bengaluru is on record once. In January 2023 the Karnataka Animal Welfare Board, with the BBMP veterinary department, the city police, the animal husbandry department and NGOs, raided pet shops across the city and rescued 1,344 animals of 16 species: 389 finches, 302 budgerigars and lovebirds, 196 pigeons and doves, 108 rabbits, 103 hens, 94 African parrots, 38 hamsters, 34 dogs, 21 cockatiels, 19 mice, 12 cats, 12 partridges, 11 ducks, 3 African crows, a turkey and a red-eared slider; the Board said it had served notices on 44 unregistered shops to obtain licences, that 24 had applied and that the other 20 had been issued closure notices. The species list is the Tamil Nadu register in miniature: a Bengaluru pet shop is a bird shop first.

Groomers, boarders and the cafe question

The 'pet grooming' pull returned 100 listings, 49 of them classed by Google as pet groomers, 24 as boarding or day care and 9 as veterinary clinics; 99 are rated, the median listing has 115 reviews, 82.8 percent score 4.5 or higher and 65 percent have a website, the highest of any pull in this report, and the chains appear nine times: Heads Up For Tails and Supertails and Zigly twice each, JUSTDOGS, Vetic and Wiggles once. The 'pet boarding' pull returned 100 listings, 73 of them boarding, day care, kennels or sitters, 93 rated, a median of 44 reviews and 91.4 percent at 4.5 or higher. Grooming prices across cities are in Bonbeno's dog grooming cost guide and the boarding decision in boarding versus a pet sitter.

The cafe pull is the one to read with care. Of 40 results for 'pet friendly cafe' in Bengaluru, 23 are cafes and the rest are restaurants, a brewery, a bakery for dogs, a pet supply store, a boarding service and a day-care centre that Google matched on the words; 19 carry Google's Pets attribute, 17 of them 'dogs allowed inside' and 15 'dogs allowed outside', and two carry only the outside permission. A Google attribute is a shortlist, not a policy; Bonbeno's guide to cafe etiquette with your dog says what to ask before you sit down.

The pet licence that has been drafted five times and notified never, the apartment rules that are in force, and Cubbon Park

Bengaluru's rules for pet dogs exist as guidelines, court orders and drafts. Knowing which is which is most of what an owner needs.

No pet licence is in force in Bengaluru, and none has been since the Rules were first drafted in 2013. Citizen Matters recorded in February 2016 that the BBMP's Animal Husbandry division had 'so far issued 2,100 licenses to pet animals' under a draft that proposed one dog per flat, three per house, a Rs 100 penalty for owners who fail to scoop the poop and Rs 1,000 for no licence. The Better India described the 2017 camps, Rs 110 for the first year and Rs 100 thereafter, 225 dogs in four hours; Onmanorama reported in November 2021 that the city had 'more than 80,000 pet dogs' and that compulsory registration under the BBMP Act 2020 would carry a Rs 1,000 fine plus Rs 300 a day, with microchip and neutering compulsory before licensing and Rs 1,000 for abandonment. In March 2024 the BBMP told The Times of India it had 'never had a proper pet licensing system' and formed a panel.

The Greater Bengaluru Authority has produced two drafts in 2026. The February draft exempts Indie and rescued dogs from the licence fee and replaces compulsory sterilisation of female pet dogs above 12 months with a breeding licence. The September draft, prepared by the East Corporation after the department returned the BBMP's March 2021 policy, would register every dog above three months at Rs 500 a year, or Rs 50 for an Indian or mongrel dog, and cap dogs by floor area: one in a home of up to 581 square feet, two up to 1,163, three up to 2,325, and up to ten with the registration authority's approval. Neither has been notified, so there is still no fee to pay, no portal to use and no penalty to fear; Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India tracks every city's portal and says so for Bengaluru.

The rules that are in force: apartments

What binds a Bengaluru housing society is not a by-law but two instruments. The Karnataka animal husbandry department's circular of 24 August 2020 told resident welfare associations that they cannot ban pets, cannot impose a ban on barking and cannot levy pet charges, and may ask for a leash in common areas. The BBMP Chief Commissioner's guidelines of 22 July 2024, No. CCOMM/PR-(G) 1126/2024-25, repeat it for associations and add that pets are allowed in lifts on a leash, that no pet can be forced to wear a muzzle, that incessant barking is handled case by case and that associations 'cannot adopt any rules or bye-laws overriding the rules mentioned by AWBI even with complete majority'. Bonbeno's guide to pets in apartments in India reads both clause by clause.

Cubbon Park

Dogs are allowed in Cubbon Park under conditions written in December 2021 and tested in June 2022. On 9 December 2021 the Karnataka High Court, hearing the Cubbon Park Walkers Association's petition, WP 1024 of 2021, asked why dogs were allowed in at all; the BBMP's counsel said they were permitted only on Sundays and the court said people 'don't chain them'. Within nine days the Horticulture Department issued guidelines: no ferocious or large breed dogs, a leash of up to six feet, rabies vaccination mandatory with records produced on demand, sterilisation advised, and owners to carry a scoop and bin the waste. In June 2022 the department proposed a ban from 1 July after complaints from walkers; a petition gathered more than 5,500 signatures, and on 28 June the ban was put on hold pending new rules. Lalbagh does not admit dogs. Bonbeno's guide to dog parks in India covers what the Cubbon rules mean on a Sunday morning, and its metro guide explains why no dog rides Namma Metro.

When a pet dies: one animal crematorium, 400 cremations a month, and nine months in 2025 when it was shut

Bengaluru's provision for the end of a pet's life is a single municipal facility, and 2025 showed what happens when it fails.

The city's only animal crematorium is the BBMP's electric unit at Sumanahalli near the Outer Ring Road, which cremates about 400 animals a month, at least 14 a day, at a fee the Deccan Herald reported in December 2024 as Rs 300 for a dog and Rs 600 for a larger animal and in June 2025 as Rs 800 for a dog and Rs 300 for a cat. Its chimney collapsed on 14 April 2025 and the facility stayed closed until it reopened on Monday 12 January 2026, working 7 am to 5 pm. In the nine months between, a Yelahanka resident paid Rs 10,000 to bury a 20-year-old cat she could earlier have cremated for under Rs 1,000, a Malleswaram owner drove 80 kilometres to a friend's farm, and a Yelahanka shelter losing 10 to 20 dogs a month was paying Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 a dog, Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 a month, for burial.

The BBMP approved two more electric animal crematoria in the 2023-24 budget and in December 2024 identified land for them at Yelahanka and Dasarahalli, about 2,000 square feet each; neither was open when Sumanahalli reopened. Private cremation runs to Rs 5,000 and more, and burial on private land is lawful if the animal did not die of a notifiable infection. Bonbeno's guide to what to do when your pet dies in India covers the practical steps; the BBMP's 1533 helpline is the number community caretakers use for a dog that has died on the street.

What a Bengaluru pet owner can do with these numbers

Seven things that follow from the record, in the order a new owner meets them.

1. Register nothing yet, but keep the papers ready. No licence is in force. The September 2026 draft would require every dog above three months to be registered, so keep the rabies certificate, a photograph and the microchip number where you can find them. Bonbeno's dog registration guide will say the day a portal opens.
2. Pick the 24-hour clinic before you need it. Eighteen of the 55 listed clinics publish round-the-clock opening, clustered in the south and east; the Bengaluru vet directory marks them. Phone before you drive: published hours are a claim.
3. Vaccinate against rabies on schedule and treat every bite as urgent. Bangalore Urban had nine of the state's nineteen rabies deaths in the first half of 2025; the Epidemic Diseases Hospital on Old Madras Road stocks anti-rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin.
4. Use the apartment guidelines, which are in force. An association cannot ban your pet, muzzle it or charge for it; the BBMP guidelines of 22 July 2024 are the document to print.
5. At Cubbon Park, follow the 2021 rules. Leash under six feet, vaccination record in your pocket, a scoop, and no breed the Horticulture Department classes as ferocious. Lalbagh is closed to dogs.
6. Check the shop before you buy a bird or a fish. The January 2023 raids found 44 pet shops without licences and 1,344 animals in them; the pet shops report lists the eight questions to ask.
7. Know the crematorium's hours and the fallback. Sumanahalli, 7 am to 5 pm, after a nine-month closure in 2025; two more are planned and not open.

What this data does not measure

Each figure here was produced for a different purpose by a different office, and the limits travel with them.

• There is no count of Bengaluru's pet dogs or cats. 'More than 80,000 pet dogs' is a civic estimate quoted in 2021 and the 2026 drafts carry no number; no survey, census or licence register exists. Every per-pet figure in this report is therefore about street dogs or about services.
• The bite series is not one series. BBMP records, the state surveillance unit and the GBA report different periods and, for 2024, different rabies death tolls (5 in the IDSP table before Parliament, 42 by the state unit's account). The bars in the first chart are labelled by period for that reason and cannot be read as a trend line.
• The 2023 survey is a sight-resight estimate with a published confidence interval, and the 'neutered' column counts ear notches, which show a past surgery and not a current vaccination. The 2019 and 2013 figures are as the Deccan Herald reported BBMP's statements, since the earlier survey documents are not online.
• The government facility counts are from a December 2023 newspaper report of a closure order, not from a published register; Karnataka's state totals are official but not split by district in the documents this report could reach.
• The directory is a window, not a census. Bonbeno lists clinics it has checked, and a city with 55 listings is not a city with 55 clinics. The Google Maps pulls are the first 100 results for one search term each (40 for cafes), classified by Google's category field, and a 24-hour claim on a listing is unverified.
• The licence drafts are as reported by newspapers on the days named; the draft texts themselves were not published by the authority in a form this report could cite, and any of them may change before notification.
• The crematorium fees were reported differently six months apart (Rs 300 for a dog in December 2024, Rs 800 in June 2025) and the report prints both rather than guessing which is current; phone the facility.

How this report was built

Every figure was read from the document cited, and the Google Maps layer was produced by scripts kept with the report.

1. The street dog table is the zone-wise CSV published with the BBMP's 2023 survey on the OpenCity data portal, read column by column; the zone rows sum to the published city total of 2,79,335, 1,65,341 males, 82,757 females and 31,237 unknown. The 2019 and 2013 figures and the programme's targets, penalties and 2022-23 budget are from the Deccan Herald's February 2023 report.
2. Dog bite figures were read from the Deccan Herald's reports of December 2023 and June 2026, PTI's report of the state surveillance data on 20 July 2025, Business Today's of 13 August 2025, Asianet's of 31 July 2025 and, for Karnataka's annual series, the IDSP annexure published by the Press Information Bureau on 1 April 2025, as used in Bonbeno's dog bite report.
3. Budget and programme figures are from the Deccan Herald's budget highlights of 29 March 2025, ETV Bharat's budget report the same day, the BBMP's feeding clarification via PTI of 13 July 2025, The Print's report, the Deccan Herald's July 2024 report of the centre closures and ETV Bharat's report of the minister's statement of 30 June 2026.
4. The government veterinary figures are from the Deccan Herald's report of the December 2023 closure order and its March 2025 report on the 1962 helpline, with the state totals from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha replies used in the Vet Access Index. The private clinic figures are counts over Bonbeno's Bengaluru directory file as checked on 16 October 2026.
5. The Google Maps layer is four Apify runs of the Google Maps Scraper: 'pet shop' (1 November 2026, 100 results), 'pet grooming' and 'pet boarding' (2 November 2026, 100 each) and the 'pet friendly cafe' pilot (31 October 2026, 40 results with the detail page's attributes), classified by Google's primary category field by the summary scripts in the research folder. The 2023 raid figures are from the Deccan Herald's report of the Board's statement.
6. The licence timeline was assembled from Citizen Matters (February 2016), The Better India (August 2017), the Deccan Herald (October 2021 and September 2026), Onmanorama (November 2021), The Times of India (March 2024) and The Hindu (February 2026); the apartment instruments from the Karnataka circular and the BBMP guidelines themselves; the Cubbon Park rules from LiveLaw and The News Minute; and the crematorium from the Deccan Herald's three reports.