Stray dogs in Ladakh, 2026: no census row of its own, estimates from 6,500 to 30,000, 4,078 dog bites in 2024 and the highest rate per resident in India, 310 dogs per 100 sq km at Hanle, a crane whose breeding success halved, five sterilisation totals that do not add up, a High Court case the court opened itself, 35 of 82 vet posts empty, a Rs 1,000 penalty in Leh and the Changkhi on the national register

Stray dogs in Ladakh: the union territory's numbers on one page

Ladakh has fewer than three lakh residents and more dog questions than most states. Sixteen rows, from nineteen sources.

Two rows carry the weight. Ladakh recorded 4,078 dog bites in the IDSP table in 2024, which on the 3.02 lakh residents projected for that year is 1,350.3 per lakh, the highest rate of any state or union territory in India, and free-ranging dogs reach 310 per 100 sq km at Hanle, where they eat livestock and wild animals. The rest of this report is about a territory that has never counted its dogs, whose bite figures are swollen by twice its population in tourists, and whose dogs are a conservation problem before they are a municipal one.

How many stray dogs Ladakh has: no census row, and five estimates

The Livestock Census cannot answer the question, and every estimate in print comes without a method.

The 20th Livestock Census of 2019 has no Ladakh row: the state table laid before the Rajya Sabha on 6 August 2025 lists 36 states and union territories and gives 3,08,897 stray dogs to 'Jammu & Kashmir', counted before Ladakh became a separate union territory. Ladakh's dogs are inside that figure and no published table separates them; the same is true of its livestock. The estimates in print are therefore all there is. The Animal Husbandry Department put the territory's free-ranging dogs at about 25,000 in 2023, while the wildlife expert M.K. Ranjitsinh Jhala said 'More than 6,500 feral dogs are there in Ladakh alone'; Down To Earth reported an 'official guess' of 25,000 to 30,000 in December 2022; and a Shiv Nadar University issue brief of July 2025 put Leh district alone at 9,000 to 10,000, 'equivalent to nearly 30% of the human population'. That last ratio does not survive arithmetic: Leh district had 1,33,487 people at the 2011 census, and 10,000 dogs is 7.5 percent of them; the brief does not say which population it divided by. Ladakh's whole 2011 population was 2,74,289, Leh 1,33,487 and Kargil 1,40,802. On 25 October 2023 the Union Territory ordered its local ABC committees in Leh and Kargil to 'Arrive at an estimate of the number of dogs within its territorial limits by conducting a census in the manner advised by the AWBI'; no result of that census could be found published three years later. Bonbeno's street dog report explains why the census rows for Jammu and Kashmir carry Ladakh.

Down To Earth's route counts give a sense of density in the towns: 'the average number of adult dogs encountered is as high as 47 per kilometre', 72 on one route, and 90 to 110 percent more encounters on routes where new hotels had opened. The Ladakh administration's own February 2023 meeting traced the food to waste in municipal areas and army cantonments.

Dog bites and rabies in Ladakh: 4,078 in 2024, five counts for 2022, and India's highest rate

Ladakh's bite figures come from five instruments, and the national table is the only one that runs year to year.

The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2025 gives Ladakh 2,165 dog bites in 2022, 2,569 in 2023, 4,078 in 2024 and 373 in January 2025, and no human rabies death Padma Ladon and Phuntsog Dolma, a rise of 88.4 percent in two years. On the 3.02 lakh residents projected for 2024 that is 1,350.3 bites per lakh, above Sikkim's 1,237.6 and Goa's 1,088.8 and five times India's 265.7; Tamil Nadu recorded 623.2, Karnataka 530.7, Maharashtra 381.1 and Delhi 115.9, as Bonbeno's dog bite report computes. The same year Ladakh received 6,52,398 tourist visits, 2,92,836 domestic and 34,915 foreign to Leh and 3,20,432 and 4,215 to Kargil, by the Ministry of Tourism's figures, more than twice its resident population; a bite to a visitor is in the numerator and the visitor is not in the denominator, so the rate overstates the risk to a resident by an amount nobody has measured. The other counts for 2022 do not agree with the table or each other: the High Court recited 2,229 registered cases, up from 854 in 2017, and the Chief Medical Officer, Leh, reported 2,000 at SNM Hospital from across the union territory. Down To Earth reported Leh district rising from 556 bites a year in 2015-16 to 1,839 in 2021-22. In 2023, 232 bites were registered by 7 February and more than 250 by late March, while the Block Medical Officer, Zanskar, counted 34 people bitten from 1 January to 9 March. Kargil district has no published series of its own.

Rabies and the deaths: notifiable since 2025, and maulings rather than infection

On 19 February 2025 the Lieutenant Governor declared 'Human Rabies' a 'Notifiable Disease' in Ladakh, requiring every government and private health facility to report suspected, probable and confirmed cases to the district Chief Medical Officer; a suspected case is a 'Death of a human with history of dog bite few weeks/months preceding death'. The IDSP's zeros are the only figure in print, and no source read declares Ladakh rabies-free; a recorded zero under a reporting system made mandatory only in 2025 is an absence of reports, not a certificate. The deaths Ladakh does record are maulings. Tsering Kunzess, 79, who lived alone, was killed by dogs near her home in Rantaksha, Zanskar, in March 2023 Padma Ladon and Phuntsog Dolma; the brief records earlier deaths at Spituk in 2014 and Saspol in 2015, and the chairman of the Wildlife Conservation and Birds Club of Ladakh told ETV Bharat that 'five humans lost their lives due to attacks by stray dogs'. No official count of those deaths exists.

Dogs and wildlife in Changthang: Hanle's 310 per 100 sq km and the black-necked crane

In eastern Ladakh the free-ranging dog is a predator in a landscape with few, and the evidence is in the cranes, the marmots and the herders' flocks.

A Wildlife Institute of India study of Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary, published in April 2023, found 310 free-ranging dogs per 100 sq km around Hanle and 61 around Tso Moriri, densities 'far exceeding densities of native carnivores' by the 2025 brief's account, and scat analysis put 74.29 percent of the dogs' diet in livestock and 13.06 percent in wild species, the Tibetan wild ass or kiang among them. The black-necked crane's breeding success in Ladakh fell from 60 percent in 1994 to 33 percent in 2017, with dog predation identified as a major reason for chick deaths; the Bombay Natural History Society has sterilised more than 2,950 dogs around the crane's wetlands at Hanle, Tso Kar and Nyoma since 2022 and counted 19 breeding pairs in June 2026, with about 1,000 armed forces personnel trained. Villagers told ETV Bharat in January 2025 of a Pallas's cat killed by dogs at Anley on 6 January 2025 and another in March 2024, marmot burrows dug out at Hanley, a kiang foal killed and crane chicks eaten. The brief also records a suspected dog-wolf hybrid, 'locally known as kheb-shang'.

The herders' losses: 15 percent of deaths around Leh, and Saspol's sevenfold rise

Around Leh, a survey of 114 households in 16 villages within 40 km of the town found free-ranging dogs behind 14.89 percent of livestock deaths, a loss of INR 3,120 a household a year; the Shiv Nadar brief, citing the same paper, gives Rs 3,984, and the paper's own figure is printed here. In Saspol block, dog attacks on livestock rose from 15 (9 deaths) in 2023-24 to 99 (43 deaths) in 2024-25, and the Sheep Husbandry Department states that 'Wild and stray dog attack remains the main factor discouraging the farmers from rearing livestock'. A solar-powered electric fence piloted at Liker village in December 2024 has reportedly kept dogs out. Ladakh's own guard dog, the Changkhi, was bred to protect these flocks from snow leopards (see below).

Compensation in Ladakh: nothing for a bite, a subsidy for a flock

No court formula or scheme prices a dog bite in Ladakh; the only money on the books goes to herders.

No dog-bite compensation scheme, notification or High Court formula for Ladakh could be found published; Bonbeno's Haryana report shows what a court formula for a bite looks like. Kargil's Chief Executive Councillor said in February 2024 that compensation for losses from stray dog attacks would be taken up with the Union Territory administration; no outcome was found. The Sheep Husbandry Department's schemes, last updated 11 September 2025, cover 'Beneficiaries that have suffered the brunt of wild attack/dog attack as a matter of compensation' with a 75 percent subsidy on ten units of five ewes and a ram or nine and a ram of Pashmina, dairy goat or Merino stock in Leh district, and pay 75 percent of chain-link livestock sheds and pilot electric fencing for flocks of 30 or more in dog-prone areas. The department says it gives health cover to 5.14 lakh sheep and goats from 117 Sheep Extension Centres and that 'more than 1000 livestock are killed by depredation' each year. A person bitten in Ladakh has no comparable route.

The Animal Birth Control programme and the orders: five totals, a dog census ordered, and a court that acted alone

Ladakh has sterilised for more than a decade, but its totals do not line up, and the High Court took up the problem on its own motion.

About 8,500 dogs were neutered in 2013 to 2021, and a 'Mission Mode' launched on 14 August 2021 did about 8,000 in its first year for Rs 1.21 crore, roughly Rs 1,500 a dog, a coverage of 30 percent. The administration then reported 22,145 sterilised since 2013 in February 2023, 'over 23,000' a month later and 26,684 by 10 July 2023, including 128 in a three-day camp at Nyoma and 189 in five days at Khaltse; in January 2025 the Animal Husbandry Department at Leh gave 27,823 for 2015 to 2024. The two later totals start in different years, and read together they would leave about 1,100 operations for July 2023 to December 2024, which neither source says; they are printed side by side and not reconciled. Kargil's Chief Animal Husbandry Officer reported about 8,000 sterilised in that district by July 2025, and BNHS's 2,950 in Changthang are a separate programme. Colour-coded reflective collars for neutered and vaccinated dogs were launched at Skara on 5 March 2024. The Animal Welfare Board's ABC grant to Ladakh fell from Rs 24.4 lakh in 2018-19 to Rs 4.03 lakh in 2020-21, with nothing after.

The High Court's own case, the 2023 order and the Supreme Court

In April 2023 a division bench of Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Sanjay Dhar of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh registered 'Court On Its Own Motion Vs UT of Ladakh' after learning that registered dog bites had risen from 854 in 2017 to 2,229 in 2022, and issued notice to the Secretary, Animal Husbandry, the Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, the chairmen of the Leh and Kargil Municipal Committees, the Director, Health Services, Kargil and the Ladakh Legal Services Authority Bar and Bench, 'Jammu & Kashmir High Court…. By May 2024 the case, WP(C) PIL No. 1/2023 against the 'Union Territory of Ladakh (Ladakh Autonomous Hill Dev. Council)', was listed with the Jammu and Kashmir petition, and the court set it down for 'necessary orders in respect of UT of Ladakh'; no later Ladakh order could be found. The Union Territory's order 350-LA(GAD) of 25 October 2023 set up a State ABC Monitoring Committee under the Urban Development Secretary and local committees under the Executive Officers of the Leh and Kargil Municipal Committees, told to count the dogs, sterilise 70 percent of an area before moving on, meet every three months and draft an action plan within a month. In July 2024 Maneka Gandhi asked the Lieutenant Governor to intervene against a Leh Deputy Commissioner's order banning the feeding of dogs on roads. The Supreme Court's order of 7 November 2025 told every state and union territory to fence schools, hospitals, bus stands and stations and not release the dogs taken from them back to the same place, and on 19 May 2026 it 'refused to recall' that direction. On 3 January 2026 Leh's Municipal Committee ordered all cattle and stray animals off the national and state highways within its limits, citing the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court.

Veterinary care in Ladakh: 77 vets, 35 of 82 posts vacant, and no college

Ladakh has many vets for its few people and a government service with more than two in five posts empty.

Ladakh had 77 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, and 35 of its 82 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 42.7 percent against India's 25.8; only six states and union territories had a higher vacancy rate. Its 140 government institutions are 4 hospitals and polyclinics, 9 dispensaries and 127 aid centres, and all 9 of its sanctioned mobile veterinary units were operating on 31 January 2025. The Veterinary Council of India lists no veterinary college in Ladakh; the nearest are SKUAST's faculties at Srinagar and Jammu. On the 3.02 lakh residents projected for 2024 Ladakh has 25.5 registered vets per lakh people against India's 6.3, but no livestock-per-vet ratio can be computed, because the 2019 census counted Ladakh's animals inside Jammu and Kashmir's; the Sheep Husbandry Department alone reports 5.14 lakh sheep and goats under its health cover. Bonbeno's Vet Access Index lists Ladakh unranked for that reason. Bonbeno's vet directories cover eight cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad), and none serves Ladakh; in Leh, the Animal Husbandry Department's clinics at Skara and Changspa are the ones the Municipal Committee names, and what a consultation costs elsewhere is in Bonbeno's guide to what a vet visit costs in India.

Pets and the rules in Ladakh: Leh's Rs 1,000 penalty, no shop register, and the Changkhi

Ladakh's pet rules are Leh's alone, and its one claim to a breed is on the national register.

Leh's Municipal Committee made registration of pet dogs within the town compulsory by 15 August 2024 under 'clause 20 of section 202 of CHAPTER-XI Bye-Laws under the J&K Municipal Act, 2000', with a penalty of Rs 1,000 and no vaccination or sterilisation at the Animal Husbandry clinics at Skara and Changspa for an unregistered dog. No registration fee, portal or count was published, and Kargil has no equivalent in print. The administration's February 2023 plan had already told the Municipal Committee to register, vaccinate and sterilise pet dogs, and the October 2023 order gives the local committees the job of 'Providing guidelines to pet dog owners and commercial breeders from time to time'. Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India covers the portals that exist. No pet shop register or count for Ladakh was found; Bonbeno's pet shops report carries the Rules. Ladakh's anthropologists see more than administration in the subject: Karine Gagné's 2019 study argues that dog control in Ladakh became a contest over territory and Buddhist virtue.

The Changkhi: Ladakh's guard dog on the national register

ICAR's National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources registered the Changkhi on 6 January 2025 as INDIA_DOG_3800_CHANGKHI_19005, and the Gazette of India notified it on 15 April 2025; the Bureau describes it as 'native of Ladakh (UT)' and 'used as watch dog to guard their livestock including sheep and goat from snow leopard, wild animals and other predators'. It is one of the few registered Indian dog breeds and, by Bonbeno's report on the register, is not on the Kennel Club of India's list; the Changkhi has its own page. The 2025 research brief recommends expanding the use of guardian dogs to protect flocks, which in Ladakh means the Changkhi. No pet crematorium or burial ground could be found in Leh or Kargil; Bonbeno's guide to when your pet dies in India covers the steps.

What a Ladakh pet owner can do with these numbers

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

1. Register your dog in Leh. The penalty is Rs 1,000, and the Skara and Changspa clinics turn away an unregistered dog.
2. Sterilise and vaccinate your own dog, and keep it in. A pet that roams joins the free-ranging population the 2025 brief traces to 'poor pet management'.
3. After a bite, go the same day for the vaccine and keep the record. Every facility must report a suspected rabies case since February 2025.
4. Keep food waste away from dogs. Every source names waste near camps and towns as the food supply.
5. If you keep sheep or goats, ask the Sheep Husbandry Department about sheds and electric fencing. It pays 75 percent for flocks of 30 or more.
6. Know which order applies. Institutions are cleared to shelters; highways in Leh are cleared of strays.
7. Ask your local ABC committee for its dog census. It was ordered in October 2023 and never published.

What this data does not measure

Ladakh is thinly documented, and most of its gaps are absences rather than disagreements.

• There is no census count of Ladakh's dogs. The 2019 Livestock Census row for Jammu and Kashmir includes Ladakh and is not split; the 21st census had published no state table by 11 November 2026; the dog census ordered in October 2023 was not found published. Every estimate here has no stated method.
• The bite counts are five instruments, and three of them give 2,229, 2,000 and 2,165 for 2022. The dataset computes nothing across them. Kargil has no published series; the IDSP's Ladakh row is read from Kashmir Life and the Shiv Nadar brief because the PIB page was unreadable this session.
• The per-lakh rate counts residents only, while 6.52 lakh tourist visits were made in 2024. Bites to visitors are not separated anywhere.
• No rabies-free declaration exists that could be found, and human rabies has been notifiable only since February 2025; the IDSP zeros are the only figure.
• The sterilisation totals cover different periods and agencies and cannot be summed or reconciled; no figure for spending after 2022 was found.
• No later order in the High Court's Ladakh case than May 2024 could be found, and no Ladakh affidavit to the Supreme Court was read.
• The wildlife figures come from studies of particular places (Hanle, Tso Moriri, peri-urban Leh, Saspol) and are not territory-wide. The 'nearly 30%' ratio in the 2025 brief does not match Leh district's census population and is not used.
• No compensation paid for a bite or for livestock lost to dogs, no pet shop count, no Kargil licence rule and no pet crematorium were found published.

How this report was built

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

1. The census position is from the Rajya Sabha statement of 6 August 2025, and the 2011 populations from the Registrar General's figures as citypopulation.de tabulates them; the estimates are from Mongabay India, Down To Earth and the Shiv Nadar University issue brief.
2. The bite figures are from Kashmir Life's report of the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025, LiveLaw, the Ladakh administration, ThePrint, The Tribune and Down To Earth; the tourist figures from Kashmir Life's report of the Ministry of Tourism's reply; the rabies notification from the Health and Medical Education Department.
3. The wildlife and livestock figures are from Mongabay, the Shiv Nadar brief, Frontiers in Conservation Science, ETV Bharat, Indus Dispatch and the Sheep Husbandry Department.
4. The programme and order figures are from Indus Dispatch, Voice of Ladakh Voice of Ladakh, 'CEC Dr Jaffer chairs…, Reach Ladakh, the Union Territory's order, LiveLaw, Bar and Bench and the High Court's order of 29 May 2024, The Tribune, the Supreme Court's order, News On AIR and the Municipal Committee Leh; the veterinary figures from the Lok Sabha replies Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 1287, data.gov.in and the VCI list.
5. The pet figures are from Rising Kashmir, ICAR-NBAGR, the Gazette of India and HIMALAYA. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 11 November 2026 through an Apify run of Google's India results for 'stray dogs in ladakh', 'stray dogs in leh' and 'dog bite cases in ladakh'; the last returned no box.