Stray dogs in Karnataka, 2026: 11,41,173 counted in 2019, up 30 percent, 3,61,522 dog bites and 42 rabies deaths in 2024, 53 rabies deaths in 2025, a Rs 5 lakh compensation order, Rs 120 crore spent sterilising about three lakh dogs in Bengaluru, and 34 percent of the state's veterinary posts vacant

Stray dogs in Karnataka: the state's numbers on one page

Karnataka counts more carefully than most states and spends more than most on sterilisation, and its rabies deaths have tripled in three years. Sixteen rows, from fifteen sources.

Two rows carry the weight. Karnataka's two official bite tables agree, 3,61,522 against 3,61,494 for 2024, which no other large state's do Press Information Bureau, Stray dogs, and its rabies deaths nearly tripled from 18 in 2023 to 53 in 2025. The rest of this report is about a state whose counting improved faster than its outcomes.

How many stray dogs Karnataka has: 11.41 lakh in 2019, up 30 percent, and one city that has counted three times

Karnataka's census count rose when India's fell. Bengaluru, which counts every few years, found fewer dogs and more sterilised ones.

Karnataka had 11,41,173 stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019, 30.3 percent more than the 8,76,081 of 2012, against a national fall of 10.67 percent, and 17.3 dogs for every 1,000 people, the fifth-largest count of any state National Commission on Population. In 2012, 24.5 percent of its stray dogs were counted in urban areas and the rest in rural ones; the 2019 census also recorded 77,075 stray cattle, a tenth of Maharashtra's. The census is a household-enumerator estimate by village and ward, and Bonbeno's street dog report sets Karnataka's rise beside Odisha's doubling and Uttar Pradesh's halving. The 21st Livestock Census had published no state stray dog table by 2 November 2026.

Bengaluru: 2,79,335 dogs, 71.81 percent of them sterilised

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's survey of July to August 2023 counted 2,79,335 street dogs, 9.88 percent fewer than the 3,09,975 of 2019, with 71.81 percent of observed dogs carrying the ear notch of a sterilised dog, from 59.34 percent in Mahadevapura zone to 79.48 percent in West, which by Bonbeno's arithmetic leaves about 78,700 dogs unsterilised; the 2019 survey had found 51 percent sterilised and a 2013 count about 1,85,000. No other Indian city has measured a share above 70 percent, the working target under the Animal Birth Control Rules; Mumbai's 2024 survey found 62.9 percent and Chennai's 2024 survey 27 percent, and Hyderabad's claim of over 80 percent is derived from surgery records rather than a count, as Bonbeno's street dog report explains. Bonbeno's Bengaluru report carries the zone table as its dataset. No other Karnataka city has published a count: Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Belagavi appear in this report only through their bite and rabies figures.

Dog bites and rabies: 3.6 lakh bites and 42 deaths in 2024, 2.86 lakh bites in eight months of 2025, and 53 deaths in the year

Karnataka made dog bites notifiable in 2022, which is why its numbers rose and why they can be trusted more than most.

Between January and December 2024 Karnataka recorded 3,61,522 dog bite cases and 42 rabies deaths, and between 1 January and 30 June 2025 it recorded 2,31,091 cases and 19 deaths, a 36.20 percent increase on the 1,69,672 cases and 18 deaths of the first half of 2024, by the state health department's figures; Vijayapura's residents were bitten most often, 15,527 cases, then BBMP limits at 13,831, Hassan 13,388, Dakshina Kannada 12,524 and Bagalkote 12,392, and Yadgir the fewest at 1,132, while Bengaluru Urban had nine of the nineteen deaths and Belagavi five. By the end of July the count was 2.81 lakh and 26 deaths, 37 percent above the same period of 2024, against 3.6 lakh and 42 deaths for the whole of 2024; by 10 August, 2.86 lakh and 26 deaths, with 5,652 bites in that single humid monsoon week. The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha gives Karnataka 1,63,356 bites in 2022, 2,32,715 in 2023, 3,61,494 in 2024 and 39,437 in January 2025, 530.7 per lakh people in 2024 against 265.7 for India, the second-highest rate of any large state after Tamil Nadu. The 2024 figures from the two systems are 28 cases apart, which is what reporting under a notifiable-disease order looks like; the Principal Secretary attributed the rise itself to better reporting, saying similar incidents 'occurred earlier but were underreported'. Bonbeno's dog bite report prints the IDSP series for every state.

Rabies deaths: 18, 42, 53

Deaths due to rabies 'have increased significantly in Karnataka over the last three years, with the figure jumping from 18 in 2023 to 53 in 2025', a majority of them in 2025 from Bengaluru Urban (18), followed by Belagavi (9), Bagalkot (5) and Vijayapura (4), after the state declared rabies a notifiable disease in December 2022; vaccinating one dog costs close to Rs 265 and has to be done annually, and the state was preparing an action plan when the figures were reported in March 2026. The IDSP's annexure, which records suspected deaths through its own network, gives 3, 4 and 5 for 2022 to 2024, and the national estimate from the ICMR survey is 5,726 deaths a year against the 54 the surveillance table recorded in 2024. Bengaluru Urban's share is the point to hold onto: the city with the highest measured sterilisation coverage in India recorded 18 of its state's 53 rabies deaths.

The compensation order: Rs 5 lakh for a death, Rs 5,000 for an injury

On 19 November 2025 the Karnataka government revised its 2023 order so that the family of a person who dies in a stray dog attack or of rabies 'will receive a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from the state government', and a victim with skin punctures, deep bruising, lacerations or multiple bite injuries 'will be paid a total compensation of Rs 5,000', of which Rs 3,500 goes directly to the victim through the Urban Development Department and Rs 1,500 to the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust for treatment, following the Supreme Court's directions of 7 November on anti-rabies treatment and emergency care. The Rs 5,000 drew memes and a question from animal welfare activists, who pointed out that the anti-rabies vaccine is free at primary health centres; the order carries a helpline, 63648 93322, and officials said the payment needs no additional documents and can be released in seven to ten days. No other state in this series pays a fixed sum for a bite.

The Animal Birth Control programme: Rs 120 crore in Bengaluru, a minister's doubt, a 90,000-dog order, and a central grant of zero

Bengaluru runs the best-measured sterilisation programme in the country and its own minister asked in June 2026 which dogs it had sterilised.

'Nearly Rs 120 crore had been spent over the last eight years to sterilise around three lakh stray dogs' in Bengaluru under the Animal Birth Control programme, Karnataka's Minister for Bengaluru Development, Krishna Byre Gowda, said on 30 June 2026, adding that only 6,799 had been sterilised under the current programme, that 'there is a genuine doubt about which dogs were actually sterilised', that the population had not declined, and that officials were to sterilise 90,000 dogs within six months and sustain 90,000 a year for three years. The BBMP's 2025-26 budget had set out to neuter 75,000 dogs and vaccinate over 1,80,000, with Rs 60 crore for the maintenance of street dogs, two new ABC centres at Bommanahalli and Mahadevapura at Rs 7.5 crore and an observation centre at Yelahanka; the Lokayukta ordered observation centres in every ward after a death at Kodigehalli; and the corporation's Rs 2.88 crore programme to feed about 4,000 dogs at 100 points per zone, at Rs 19 a dog a day, was defended on the ground that 70 percent of wards had met their sterilisation targets. The Bengaluru Central City Corporation now designates 90 official feeding spots. Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysuru and the state's other corporations publish no comparable figures; the one statewide number is the central one, and it is zero.

What the Centre pays, and what the Supreme Court ordered

The Animal Welfare Board of India released no ABC grant to any state in 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 or 2024-25; from 2025-26 the revised scheme offers Rs 800 per dog and Rs 600 per cat to bodies that follow the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, which make the local authority responsible, require release at the same locality under rule 11(19) and bar relocation. The Supreme Court's order of 22 August 2025 restored release after sterilisation, confined feeding to designated spots in each ward and impleaded every state; its order of 7 November 2025 told every local body to fence schools, hospitals, sports complexes, bus stands and railway stations and move dogs found there to shelters after sterilisation and vaccination, and to stock anti-rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin in hospitals, which is the order Karnataka's compensation revision cites; on 19 May 2026 the court upheld those directions. The Greater Bengaluru Authority's February 2026 draft identified 2,500 dogs in institutions under the November order.

Veterinary care: 5,082 registered vets, a third of government posts empty, 275 mobile units on the 1962 helpline, and 55 private clinics in Bengaluru

Karnataka's government veterinary network is large and a third empty; its mobile units are the one part that grew.

Karnataka had 5,082 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, up from 4,520 in 2021, and 1,136 of its 3,317 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 34.2 percent against 25.8 percent for India. Its 4,254 government institutions are 697 veterinary hospitals and polyclinics, 2,176 dispensaries and 1,381 aid centres; its 275 operational mobile veterinary units, sanctioned at 290 vehicles against 289 lakh animals under the central norm of one per lakh livestock, cover 0.9 per lakh and, on the 1962 helpline launched on 5 August 2023, had treated five lakh animals in nineteen months by March 2025. With 2,90,13,412 livestock in the 2019 census, the state has 5,709 livestock per registered vet against India's 6,106 and 7.5 vets per lakh people against 6.3, which Bonbeno's Vet Access Index places in the middle of the 35 states and territories; its five recognised veterinary colleges have 455 approved seats. In Bengaluru Urban the December 2023 closure order shut a hospital and 26 clinics, leaving about 70 government facilities of 101, 18 of them hospitals.

The private layer in Bengaluru

Bonbeno's Bengaluru vet directory lists 55 clinics and hospitals, 18 of which publish round-the-clock opening and 33 of which call themselves hospitals, 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. The Google Maps pulls returned 71 pet stores and 17 aquarium and bird shops in the first 100 results for 'pet shop', 49 groomers and 73 boarding or day-care listings, and 17 of 40 cafes carrying Google's 'dogs allowed inside' attribute. What a consultation, a vaccination or a surgery costs is in Bonbeno's guide to what a vet visit costs in India.

Pets and the rules: a licence drafted six times and never notified, a High Court order on pet shops, the Mudhol Hound, and one crematorium

Karnataka's capital has no pet licence in force. Its pet shops have been under a court order to register since 2020. Its native breed serves in four forces.

No pet dog licence is in force in Bengaluru. The city has produced drafts in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021, February 2026 and September 2026 without notifying one; the Times of India reported in March 2024 that the BBMP 'has never had a proper pet licensing system', and the September 2026 draft of the Greater Bengaluru Authority's East Corporation would register every dog above three months at Rs 500 a year, Rs 50 for an Indian or mongrel dog. Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India covers the cities that do license. Housing societies work under the state's circular of 24 August 2020 to resident welfare associations and the BBMP's guidelines of July 2024 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, and Bonbeno's guide to pets in apartments in India reads both.

Pet shops and breeders: a court order of 2020, a raid of 2023, no register

In February 2020 the Karnataka High Court directed every pet shop owner and dog breeder to obtain a certificate of registration from the State Animal Welfare Board within three months, holding that a shop 'cannot function without obtaining certificate of registration from State Board'; the Board's notice of 5 February 2020 gave a sixty-day window. In January 2023 the Board's surprise raids across Bengaluru rescued 1,344 animals of 16 species, served notices on 44 shops, of which 24 applied, and issued 20 closure notices. The Rules require a Board certificate for every shop that sells an animal and every breeder; Karnataka has published no register, and the Animal Welfare Board of India's circular of December 2023 recorded that no state had provided its number. Bonbeno's pet shops report carries the Rules clause by clause.

The Mudhol Hound: Karnataka's registered breed, and the forces that took it

The Mudhol Hound of Bagalkot was one of the first three indigenous Indian dog breeds registered by ICAR's National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, in December 2020, with the Rajapalayam and Chippiparai of Tamil Nadu, and it is one of the six Indian breeds the Kennel Club of India recognises Wikipedia, 'List of dog breeds from India'. Its conservation centre is the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University's Canine Research and Information Centre at Timmapur, Mudhol, inaugurated on 24 September 2009 on 40 acres granted by the state. Six of its hounds were trained for the Army's Remount and Veterinary Corps at Meerut from 2016; four of seven ordered by the Indian Air Force went to the Agra station in February 2021, handed over by the state's Deputy Chief Minister; two went to the Special Protection Group in April 2022; and by October 2025 the Border Security Force had deployed 150 Indian-breed dogs at the borders, with a BSF Mudhol Hound, Riya, the first Indian breed to be judged best dog at the All India Police Duty Meet. Bonbeno's report on the register and its Mudhol Hound page carry the rest; the dog most of Karnataka shares a street with is the Indian pariah dog.

When a pet dies: Sumanahalli, and two units in Hubballi-Dharwad awaiting a launch

Bengaluru's one municipal animal crematorium, at Sumanahalli on Magadi Road, opened on 9 November 2015 after a Rs 3 crore build with two incinerators, cremates nearly 400 animals a month at a fee the Deccan Herald reported as Rs 300 for a dog and Rs 600 for a larger animal in December 2024 and Rs 800 for a dog and Rs 300 for a cat in June 2025, and reopened on 12 January 2026, 7 am to 5 pm, after its chimney collapsed on 14 April 2025; plots at Yelahanka and Dasarahalli for two more were identified in December 2024 and neither was open by November 2026. Hubballi-Dharwad's corporation had two units ready at its solid waste plants in October 2025, built for about Rs 1.6 to 1.7 crore from the 15th Finance Commission grant, 80 to 100 kg an hour each, awaiting the mayor's launch. Bonbeno's cremation report has every facility's fee and hours, and its guide to when your pet dies in India the steps.

What a Karnataka pet owner can do with these numbers

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

1. Vaccinate against rabies on schedule and treat every bite as urgent. The state recorded 53 rabies deaths in 2025, 18 of them in Bengaluru Urban; the vaccine is free at primary health centres.
2. Keep the hospital record after a bite. Dog bites are notifiable in Karnataka, and the Rs 5,000 injury payment and Rs 5 lakh death payment are made on it, through the helpline 63648 93322.
3. Pick the 24-hour clinic before you need it. Eighteen of Bengaluru's 55 listed clinics publish round-the-clock opening in Bonbeno's directory; outside the city, the 1962 helpline sends one of 275 mobile units.
4. Know which order applies to your building. Institutional premises are fenced and cleared to shelters under the 7 November 2025 order; a residential lane gets its sterilised dogs back under rule 11(19).
5. Feed only at a designated spot. Bengaluru's central corporation lists 90; the 22 August 2025 order requires them in every ward.
6. Buy an animal only from a shop or breeder that can show its Board certificate. The High Court has required one since 2020; the pet shops report lists what to ask.
7. Register the dog when the licence arrives, and until then keep its vaccination record. No Bengaluru licence is in force; the September 2026 draft proposes Rs 500, or Rs 50 for an Indian dog.

What this data does not measure

Each figure here was produced by a different office for a different purpose, and the gaps are specific.

• The only statewide dog count is seven years old and is a household-enumerator estimate; Bengaluru's survey is the only measured count in the state and the 21st Livestock Census had published no state stray dog table by 2 November 2026.
• The bite rise is partly a reporting rise. Dog bites became notifiable in 2022 and the state's own Principal Secretary attributes the increase to better reporting; the 2022 and 2023 IDSP figures were collected before the order took full effect and are not comparable with 2024's.
• The death counts differ by system. The state counted 42 rabies deaths in 2024 and the IDSP annexure 5; the state's 53 for 2025 has no IDSP counterpart yet; and India's estimate of 5,726 deaths a year implies every count is low.
• No full-year 2025 bite total had been read by publication; the dataset carries the eight-month figure and says so.
• Bengaluru's sterilisation record is contested by its own minister. 'About three lakh' over eight years is the minister's figure, 6,799 under the current programme is his too, and the 2023 survey's 71.81 percent is the only measurement that stands apart from both.
• The licence table is a history of drafts; nothing in it is in force, and the fee a Bengaluru owner will eventually pay is whatever the notified by-law says.
• The pet shop register does not exist in public; the 2023 raid figures are the Board's statement to the press.
• The directory and Google Maps pulls are a window on Bengaluru, not the state, and pet spending per household is not here because the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey's unit-level data had not been obtained.

How this report was built

Every figure was read from the document cited, and the state rows are the same rows Bonbeno's national reports computed from the parliamentary annexes.

1. The census figures are from the Rajya Sabha statement of 6 August 2025 and Table 79 of the 19th Livestock Census, with per-1,000 rates from the National Commission on Population's projections; Bengaluru's surveys from the BBMP's 2023 documents on OpenCity and the Deccan Herald of 25 February 2023.
2. The bite and rabies figures are from Annexure I and II to the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025, Asianet Newsable of 21 July 2025, the Deccan Herald of 12 August 2025 and 1 March 2026 Deccan Herald, 'Rabies deaths rise even… and Business Today of 13 August 2025; the compensation order from The News Minute of 20 November 2025 and the Deccan Herald of 26 November 2025 Deccan Herald, 'Karnataka's stray dog bite…; the national estimate from the WHO India page.
3. The sterilisation, grant and order figures are from ETV Bharat of 30 June 2026, the Deccan Herald and ETV Bharat of 29 March 2025 ETV Bharat, 'BBMP Budget, the Deccan Herald of 5 August 2025, The Week of 13 July 2025, The Hindu of 18 February 2026, the Lok Sabha reply of 2 December 2025, the PIB release of 19 August 2025, the Animal Birth Control Rules as gazetted, the Supreme Court's orders of 22 August and 7 November 2025 as published Supreme Court of India and News On AIR of 19 May 2026.
4. The veterinary figures are from the Lok Sabha replies of 2 December 2025, 11 February 2025 and 28 March 2023 Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 1287 Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 4449, the Rajya Sabha annexure on data.gov.in, the PIB release of 8 May 2022, the Deccan Herald of 13 March 2025 and 20 December 2023 Deccan Herald, 'Dogs and the Veterinary Council of India's college list; the directory and Google Maps figures are counts over Bonbeno's own files and Apify runs.
5. The licence, pet shop, breed and crematorium figures are from the Deccan Herald of 15 September 2026, The Times of India of 30 March 2024, the Karnataka circular of 24 August 2020, the BBMP guidelines of 22 July 2024, Bar and Bench of 6 February 2020, The News Minute of 13 February 2020, the Deccan Herald of 11 January 2023, the Pet Shop Rules, the AWBI circular, The Tribune of 23 December 2020 and 16 February 2021 The Tribune, 'IAF gets desi dogs to scare…, KVAFSU's centre page, Scroll, ETV Bharat of 18 August 2022, News On AIR of 28 October 2025, Citizen Matters of 4 January 2016, the Deccan Herald of 19 December 2024, 20 June 2025 and 10 January 2026 Deccan Herald, 'High burial cost strains… Deccan Herald, 'Sumanahalli animal… and ETV Bharat of 7 October 2025; the dhole from Wikipedia. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 2 November 2026 through an Apify run of Google's India results for the focus keyword.