Stray dogs in Madhya Pradesh, 2026: 10,09,076 counted in 2019, 1,42,948 dog bites in 2024 in the national table and 58,508 in Indore alone by the state's rabies programme, seven rabies deaths at one Gwalior hospital in four months, 4.25 lakh dogs sterilised in five years and 80,704 in 2025, 19 sterilisation centres, a Bhopal surgery at Rs 1,100 against a Rs 1,650 benchmark, a Rs 150 licence 256 dogs hold, and 12,443 livestock for every vet

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

Madhya Pradesh's best data is city by city, and its cities disagree with each other's reports of themselves. Sixteen rows, from fourteen sources.

Two rows carry the weight. Indore's dog bites rose from 32,647 in 2019 to 58,508 in 2024 by the state rabies programme's own report, and Gwalior's hospitals recorded seven rabies deaths in four months of 2026, more than the national table gives the whole state for 2024 Press Information Bureau, Stray dogs. The rest of this report is about a state that has sterilised hundreds of thousands of dogs by its own account and still cannot say how many it has.

How many stray dogs Madhya Pradesh has: 10.09 lakh in the census, and city estimates without a method

The state's estimates cluster around the census; its cities' do not cluster around anything.

Madhya Pradesh had 10,09,076 stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019, 16.5 percent fewer than the 12,08,539 of 2012, the seventh-largest count of any state and 12.3 dogs for every 1,000 people against the national 11.5 National Commission on Population; in 2012 10.4 percent were counted in urban areas and the rest rural, and the 2019 census counted 8,53,971 stray cattle, the third most in India after Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. A National Health Mission study reported in November 2025 put the state's stray dogs at 10,09,000, which is the census; by January 2026 the state's working figure was 'over 10 lakh', more than six lakh of them in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain and Gwalior, with 52.3 percent vaccinated. The city figures come with no method: Bhopal 'beyond 1.20 lakh' in August 2025, Indore 'more than 2.5 lakh' by an official in November 2025, Jabalpur 'nearly one lakh' in May 2026; in January 2026 the Indore corporation was reported not to have 'accurate data on the total number of stray dogs in the city', and a PIL before the High Court's Indore bench asked for an independent census. No Madhya Pradesh city has published a sight-resight survey of the kind Bengaluru, Mumbai and Bhubaneswar have. Bonbeno's street dog report explains how a census and an estimate diverge.

Dog bites and rabies: 1,42,948 bites in 2024, Indore's 58,508, and seven deaths at one hospital

Madhya Pradesh's state rabies programme publishes city series that the national table cannot see.

The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha gives Madhya Pradesh 66,018 dog bites in 2022, 1,13,499 in 2023, 1,42,948 in 2024 and 16,710 in January 2025, with 1, 2 and 6 suspected rabies deaths; that is 163.2 bites per lakh people in 2024 against the national 265.7, and six deaths, the second most of any state that year with Uttar Pradesh after Maharashtra's 14. A National Health Mission report under the National Rabies Control Programme, as the Free Press Journal read it in August 2025, gives Indore 32,647 bites in 2019, 27,694 in 2020, 32,325 in 2021, 40,249 in 2022, 43,738 in 2023 and 58,508 in 2024, with Jabalpur at 13,691, Gwalior 11,902, Bhopal 10,769, Ujjain 10,296 and Ratlam 6,783 in 2024. A second report of what is described as the same study gives Indore 30,304, Bhopal 19,285 and Jabalpur 13,619 for 2024; the two agree on Jabalpur within 72 and disagree on Indore by 28,204 and on Bhopal by 8,516, and since the Free Press Journal's six-year series is internally consistent the dataset carries it and this report prints both. On either version Indore is the state's bite capital, and in 2025 a single Indore hospital, the Hukamchand Polyclinic, treated 48,972 dog bites, 31,269 of them men, 8,976 women and 8,727 children; in the first three months of 2026 Indore recorded 13,640 more, 4,722 of them in March. Bonbeno's dog bite report prints the IDSP series for every state.

Rabies: seven deaths in Gwalior, and a child who had three doses

Gwalior's three government hospitals treated 13,579 dog bites from December 2025 to April 2026, 6,057 at Jayarogya Hospital, 3,772 at Murar District Hospital and 3,750 at Hazira Civil Hospital, and a man who died in May 2026 after being given a tetanus injection instead of the anti-rabies vaccine was 'the 7th victim who died due to rabies in the last 3 to 4 months in Gwalior', the dead coming from Gwalior, Tikamgarh, Datia, Chhatarpur, Murar and Sabalgarh. In February 2026 a six-year-old from Datia died of rabies at the same hospital after doses on 13, 16 and 21 January; 'despite receiving three doses of the anti-rabies vaccine after a dog bite, the child developed rabies'. A person bitten deeply by a possibly rabid dog needs immunoglobulin at the wound as well as the vaccine, and a course must be complete before the virus reaches the nerves, which is why the doses alone did not save him. Seven deaths at one city's hospitals in four months is more than the six the national table gives the whole state for 2024; the ICMR estimate for India is 5,726 a year against the table's 54.

The Animal Birth Control programme: 4.25 lakh in five years, 80,704 in 2025, and Bhopal at Rs 1,100 a dog

Madhya Pradesh reports large sterilisation totals and small daily rates, and both are true.

The state told the Supreme Court, as the Free Press Journal reported in January 2026, that it had sterilised 4.25 lakh dogs and vaccinated 5.23 lakh in five years, with 44 ABC operation tables, 31 vets, 204 trained staff and 176 vehicles; that it had 19 ABC centres and 12 shelters, three new centres at Rewa, Gwalior and Burhanpur of which one was shut for not complying with norms, and plans at Satna and Sagar at up to Rs 50 lakh a centre; and that a full programme would cost about Rs 480 crore, with Rs 40 a day to feed each sheltered dog. In calendar 2025 the state sterilised 80,704 dogs across 19 urban local bodies, 16 agencies and 19 ABC centres, and approved 54 more centres and 136 shelter homes in a first phase. At the Supreme Court on 28 January 2026 the state's counsel conceded that catching had stalled for want of shelters, with 475 dogs housed and about 300 places unused, and in May 2026 not one shelter in the state met the ABC Rules' standard. At 80,704 a year, sterilising 70 percent of ten lakh dogs, the coverage the Centre's advisory sets, would take about nine years with no new litters.

Bhopal and Indore: cheap surgeries, idle theatres, unpaid bills

Bhopal Municipal Corporation 'claims to have spent more than Rs. 8 crore on sterilizing about 61,580 dogs' in four years; it pays 'around Rs. 1,100, including Rs. 200 for transportation' a dog against the Animal Welfare Board's recommended Rs 1,650, and 'Bhopal has only three ABC centers with a combined capacity to conduct 300 sterilizations daily', which in August 2025 were doing 40 to 50; a week later the corporation said daily output at its three centres had doubled to about 60. Indore, whose programme began in 2014, says it has sterilised more than two lakh dogs and has seven shelters of 400 to 500 places; petitioners before the High Court in March 2025 put its sterilisations at 10,804 in 2016-17 rising to 36,883 in 2023-24 and its spending from Rs 47.3 lakh to Rs 3.47 crore, while bites 'more than doubled from 20,410 to 43,976'. In January 2026 Indore's sterilisations stalled because its Hyderabad-based agency said it was owed more than Rs 70 lakh. The Centre released no ABC grant in the four years to 2024-25 and offers Rs 800 a dog from 2025-26; Bhopal's Rs 1,100 sits between the two benchmarks.

The orders: 413 urban bodies, 48,000 unwalled institutions, and three High Court benches

After the Supreme Court's orders, the Urban Administration Department directed all 413 urban local bodies in November 2025 to enforce the ABC Rules, allow sterilisation only by NGOs recognised by the Animal Welfare Board of India, set up local monitoring committees and safe feeding zones, send monthly records, and 'submit compliance reports within 10 days'; it issued an SOP on 2 January 2026 and directions to collectors on 4 January, and found about 48,000 institutions exposed to stray dogs, 'nearly 56% of government and private-run buildings' without boundary walls, and only 4,573 of 11,840 hospitals and primary health centres walled. The Supreme Court's order of 7 November 2025 requires those premises fenced and cleared, its order of 22 August 2025 restored release after sterilisation for healthy dogs, and on 19 May 2026 it upheld its directions. The High Court took suo motu cognisance at Jabalpur after a pack attacked a three-year-old in Bhopal on 1 January 2022, asking 'why such incidents are happening again and again'; at Indore in March 2025 it directed strict compliance with the ABC Rules and adequate state funds; at Gwalior in March 2025 it told the municipal commissioner he 'is expected to come out with a tangible solution'; and at Indore in December 2025 it ordered a drive to remove dogs from the Chhappan Dukan and Sarafa food streets 'on top priority', before adjourning its stray dog petitions in February 2026 to await the Supreme Court. In January 2024 the Chief Minister directed Rs 4 lakh for the family of a seven-month-old killed by stray dogs in Bhopal's Ayodhya Nagar; no court-fixed compensation scheme exists.

Veterinary care: 3,266 vets for 4 crore livestock, 406 mobile units, and 3.7 vets per lakh people

Madhya Pradesh has one of the thinnest veterinary networks of any large state.

Madhya Pradesh had 3,266 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, up from 2,608 in 2021, and 289 of its 1,671 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 17.3 percent against 25.8 percent for India. Its 2,711 government institutions are 1,063 hospitals and polyclinics, 1,583 dispensaries and 65 aid centres, and its 406 operational mobile veterinary units are the third most of any state, 1.0 per lakh livestock. With 4,06,37,375 livestock in the 2019 census, the third largest herd in India, the state has 12,443 livestock per registered vet against India's 6,106, 14,990 per institution against 7,906, and 3.7 vets per lakh people against 6.3; its three recognised colleges have 300 approved seats. Bonbeno's Vet Access Index ranks every state on the same arithmetic. Bonbeno's vet directories cover eight cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad), none in Madhya Pradesh, so there is no private clinic layer here for Bhopal or Indore; what a consultation or surgery costs is in Bonbeno's guide to what a vet visit costs in India.

Pets and the rules: a Rs 150 licence 256 dogs hold, no shop register, Tekanpur's hounds, and nowhere to cremate

Bhopal has the cheapest pet licence of any capital in this series and almost nobody holds it.

Bhopal charges Rs 150 a year to register a pet dog and Rs 50 to renew under the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Rules 2023, requires registration within seven days of bringing a pet home, and 'is empowered to levy a penalty equivalent to ten times the annual registration fee'; in June 2026, 256 dogs and 63 cats were registered, and the corporation 'is yet to penalise a single defaulter'. In April 2025 the corporation counted 1,052 registered dogs and 'only 8–10% of pet dogs in the city' registered; the difference is probably cumulative registrations against current ones, but neither report says. No official Indore fee, portal or count could be read. Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India covers the portals that exist, and its guide to pets in apartments in India reads the guideline residents' associations work under. The Rules require a State Board certificate for every shop that sells an animal and every breeder; the Board's circular of December 2023 recorded that no state had provided its count, and Madhya Pradesh has published none. Bonbeno's pet shops report carries the Rules clause by clause.

Native breeds and end of life: Tekanpur, and nowhere

No dog breed named for Madhya Pradesh is on ICAR's register of six Indian breeds, but the state hosts the place where India's native breeds go to work: the BSF's National Training Centre for Dogs at Tekanpur, near Gwalior, which trains and breeds Mudhol and Rampur hounds; 'over 150 Indian breed dogs have been deployed across multiple operational theatres'. Bonbeno's report on the register carries the six and the forces' record, and its pages on the Mudhol Hound and the Rampur Greyhound cover the two Tekanpur breeds. The dog most of the state shares a road with is the Indian pariah dog. No civic pet crematorium in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur or Gwalior could be read; the nearest facilities in Bonbeno's cremation report are in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Delhi, and its guide to when your pet dies in India covers burial.

What a Madhya Pradesh 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 Bhopal within seven days of getting it. Rs 150 a year, Rs 50 to renew; only 256 dogs held a licence in June 2026.
2. Vaccinate against rabies every year and treat every bite as urgent. Indore recorded 58,508 bites in 2024.
3. Ask for the anti-rabies vaccine by name and for immunoglobulin on a deep bite. A Gwalior man was given tetanus vaccine instead and died.
4. Know which order applies to your building. Institutional premises are fenced and cleared to shelters; a residential road gets its sterilised dogs back under rule 11(19).
5. Ask your ward for its feeding zone and its monthly sterilisation record. Both are required by the state's November 2025 order.
6. Buy an animal only from a shop or breeder that can show its State Board certificate. No register exists; the pet shops report lists what to ask.
7. Plan for burial. No civic crematorium in the state could be read; Bonbeno's guide covers the steps.

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 dog count is a 2019 census and estimates without a method. No Madhya Pradesh city has published a survey; the 21st Livestock Census had published no state table by 8 November 2026.
• The city bite figures are read from news reports of a National Health Mission report that was not published, and two reports of it disagree on Indore and Bhopal. Both are printed.
• The 2025 Indore figure is one hospital's, and the Gwalior deaths are one city's hospitals; neither is a state series.
• No assembly reply or state health department table of bites or deaths could be read; the IDSP's six deaths for 2024 are suspected deaths reported by facilities.
• The 4.25 lakh sterilisations and the Supreme Court figures are as the Free Press Journal reported them, not an affidavit this report has read.
• The Bhopal licence counts differ between two reports, probably cumulative against current.
• No private clinic layer, no Indore licence, no pet shop register and no crematorium exist here, 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; the estimates from Deccan Chronicle, the Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal and The Hitavada.
2. The bite and death figures are from Annexure I and II to the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025, the Free Press Journal of 10 August 2025, 8 January, 9 February, 3 April and 3 May 2026 Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal, Deccan Chronicle of 8 November 2025 and the WHO India page.
3. The programme, order and court figures are from the Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal Free Press Journal (PTI), Verdictum Verdictum, Madhya Pradesh High Court, LiveLaw, the Supreme Court's orders Supreme Court of India, News On AIR, the ABC Rules, the Lok Sabha reply of 2 December 2025 and PIB.
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 and the VCI college list.
5. The pet and breed figures are from The Hitavada, the Free Press Journal, The Tribune, the Pet Shop Rules and the AWBI circular. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 8 November 2026 through an Apify run of Google's India results for 'stray dogs in madhya pradesh'.