Stray dogs in Nagaland, 2026: 342 stray dogs and 1,56,690 pet dogs in the same census, 714 dog bites in the national table against 2,324 in the state's own plan, no ABC centre and no money for one, a Kohima dog pound whose fines doubled, a dog meat ban the Gauhati High Court split on in April 2026, and a capital whose biting dogs are mostly unleashed pets

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

Nagaland is the one state in this series where the census found almost no stray dogs and the state's own plan found 1.57 lakh pet dogs. Sixteen rows, from the documents this report cites.

Two rows carry the weight. The state's own rabies plan reads the 20th Livestock Census as counting 1,56,690 pet dogs in Nagaland, against 342 stray dogs in the census table the Centre laid before Parliament Rajya Sabha, Starred Question 190, and the same plan says 'there is no ABC centre in the State' and no funding source to build one. The rest of this report is about a state whose dog bites come mostly from dogs with owners, and whose rules are written for them.

How many stray dogs Nagaland has: 342 in the census, and 1.57 lakh pet dogs beside them

Nagaland's census row is the smallest of any state with a dog problem in the news, and the explanation is in the state's own plan.

Nagaland had 342 stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019 and 7 in the 19th census of 2012, 0.2 for every 1,000 people against India's 11.5, with none counted in urban areas in 2012 Department of Animal Husbandry National Commission on Population. The census also counted 115 stray cattle. A rise from 7 to 342 is 4,786 percent on paper and 335 dogs in fact; neither figure is a count of the dogs on Nagaland's roads. The state's rabies elimination plan reads the same census differently: 'Nagaland has a pet dog population of 1,56,690 in total', and 'Nagaland does not have much of free roaming stray dogs', yet bite cases by pet dogs and other animals 'are reported every year'. That is 458 owned dogs for every stray one, or about 73 pet dogs for every 1,000 people, more than six times the stray dog density India records. An official of the ICAR National Research Centre on Mithun, presenting the 20th census in 2025, said livestock had fallen by 28 percent and that 'Only dogs and rabbits showed a modest rise'. In Kohima, a vet at the town's Veterinary Hospital put the dog population at more than 5,000 in 2022, up by at least 1,000 in three years from 3,000 to 4,000 in 2018; Kohima Municipal Council began a dog census in September 2017 and has published no result. No count of Dimapur's or Mokokchung's dogs could be found. Bonbeno's street dog report carries every state's census row, and Nagaland's sits beside Uttar Pradesh's 20.59 lakh and Maharashtra's 12.76 lakh as the outlier at the other end.

Dog bites and rabies: 714 bites in the national table, 2,324 in the state's plan, and the dogs are mostly pets

Nagaland's two bite counts agree until 2022 and then part, and the officials who read them say the biting dogs have owners.

The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha gives Nagaland 452 dog bites in 2022, 600 in 2023, 714 in 2024 and 85 in January 2025, and no suspected rabies death in any year Nagaland Tribune; at 31.7 bites per lakh people in 2024 that is about an eighth of the national 265.7, and against Maharashtra's 4,85,345 and Tamil Nadu's 4,80,427 bites in the same year it is a rounding error. The State Action Plan for Rabies Elimination counts differently: 249 dog bites in 2018, 490 in 2019, 588 in 2020, 488 in 2021 and 453 in 2022 from the IDSP weekly formats, then 716 in 2023, 2,324 in 2024 and 1,724 in the seven months to July 2025 from the National Rabies Control Programme's monthly format. For 2022 the two series agree within one bite; once the plan switches source, its 2024 figure is 3.3 times the table's, and its 2025 pace is higher still. The plan also counts 576 bites by other animals in 2024, and 2,747 people given post-exposure prophylaxis that year against 138 in 2022, which says as much about clinics recording bites as about dogs biting. On the plan's figure Nagaland recorded about 103 dog bites per lakh people in 2024; on the table's, 31.7. Both are printed in the dataset below, and neither is the true number.

Whose dogs bite: Dimapur, Kohima and the unleashed pet

In July 2025 the state IDSP officer, Dr Nyanthung Kikon, told a Dimapur meeting that 211 dog bites were reported in the district in January to March 2025, 'of which 209 involved stray dogs', and in the same presentation reported '80% of the cases coming from pet dogs' and 'most dog bite cases are reported in children below 10 years'; the two statements cannot both be right, and both are printed. At the World Rabies Day programme in Kohima in September 2026, the Directorate of Health's public health specialist, Dr Nounengulie Kire, said NRCP reports put Dimapur first and Kohima second, that almost a third of bites were in children under ten, and corrected her own reference to stray dogs: the dogs were pets 'which were not kept on a leash'. Kohima's ward councils have said the same in their own words: a three-year-old was mauled by an unleashed dog in the PWD colony on 15 March 2025 and left 'permanently scarred and fighting for his life', and after another attack at Ward No. 1 High School on 4 August 2026 the Association of Kohima Municipal Wards Council wrote that 'The 'XL' is no standard breed. It is a marketing sales pitch, and it is Kohima's residents who are paying for it'. Bonbeno's reports on Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru deal mostly with street dogs; in Kohima, by every official account read here, the biting dog is mostly a neighbour's.

Rabies: zeros in the table, cases in the plan

The state plan records 2 clinically suspected rabies cases in 2021, none in 2022 or 2023, and 3 suspected cases with 1 laboratory confirmed in 2024, against the IDSP table's zero suspected deaths for 2022 to 2024 Press Information Bureau, Stray dogs, and 4 suspected cases with 1 laboratory confirmed in January to July 2025. The 2021 cases match the mother and son of Rilan village, Dimapur, who died of rabies on 10 and 11 June 2021 after being bitten by their own dog. The state declared rabies a notifiable disease on 30 March 2022, and the plan concedes the animal side 'does not have any reporting mechanism for suspected or laboratory confirmed cases of animal rabies'. Dr Kire said every rabies death in 2024 and to May 2025 showed 'a delay in seeking treatment or even getting PEP'. Nationally the ICMR estimates 5,726 rabies deaths a year in India against the 54 the table recorded for 2024. Bonbeno's dog bite report prints the IDSP series for every state.

The Animal Birth Control programme and the pounds: no ABC centre, a Kohima pound, and fines that doubled

Nagaland manages dogs by confining owned ones, not by sterilising street ones, and its plan says so in writing.

The State Action Plan for Rabies Elimination states: 'Presently there is no ABC centre in the State. There is no funding source for the establishment of ABC Centre', and that 'The licensing of owned dogs is strictly implemented by the Municipality'. Its animal component budget of Rs 2,11,00,000 from the Assistance to States for Control of Animal Diseases scheme pays for surveillance, Rs 43,00,000 of animal rabies vaccine, cold chain, staff, laboratory sampling and Rs 21,00,000 of awareness campaigns, and carries no line for sterilisation. The Centre's revised scheme offers Rs 800 a dog for sterilisation, and the Animal Welfare Board released no ABC grant to any state in the four years to 2024-25. Dimapur's municipal council set up an ABC committee in August 2016 under a Supreme Court direction, to register pet dogs and sterilise, vaccinate and release street dogs; no sterilisation total for Dimapur or any other town could be found.

Kohima's dog pound, 2017 and 2026

Kohima Municipal Council opened its dog pound in September 2017: any dog 'found on the streets in the municipality without a leash' was impounded, held seven days and returned for a fine of Rs 1,000, Rs 1,500 or Rs 2,000 for a first, second or third offence, with Rs 200 a day for food. A shelter kept near the Old Zoo before the pandemic was discontinued after complaints about noise, and in September 2026 the Deputy Commissioner told the council to 'submit an action plan for the relocation and management of the dog shelter on or before September 17'. From 20 October 2026 the pound reopened at the council's MRF Plant at Lerie under Sections 61(k) and 119(1) of the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2023, with fines of Rs 2,000, Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 for the first three impoundments and Rs 4,000 from the fourth, Rs 200 a day for food and Rs 100 for cleaning; 'All dog/pet owners are required to keep confined their dogs/pets in their compound at all times'. The first-offence fine doubled in nine years. The council had told schools and anganwadis in October 2024 to 'create a safe environment for children from stray dogs' under the ABC Rules, and in December 2025 the Directorate of School Education told every school and hostel to file an action taken report by 17 December under the Supreme Court's November 2025 order.

Shoot on sight: illegal, allowed, prohibited

In October 2019 the State Animal Welfare Advisory Board declared village and local shoot-at-sight orders against dogs 'against and contrary to The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA Act) of 1960'; in June 2020 a Mokokchung village council ordered households to get rid of their pet dogs on a Rs 5,000 fine and warned that 'a pig as a fine will be imposed the second time'. On 10 May 2024 the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Phek ordered that an uncontrolled dog in the town 'may be seized or, in extreme circumstances, shot on sight by the relevant authority'. On 3 January 2025 Kohima's district administration prohibited shoot-at-sight orders, holding that 'Acts of this nature are deemed illegal under the law', and Kohima Municipal Council repeated the bar under Section 11 of the PCA Act and Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Two districts eight months apart took opposite positions on the same act.

The courts: a dog meat ban quashed, a split appeal, and the Supreme Court's orders

Nagaland's High Court record on dogs is about what may be sold, not about what a bite is worth.

On 4 July 2020 the Chief Secretary, on a Cabinet decision, banned the commercial import and trading of dogs, dog markets and the commercial sale of dog meat; on 2 June 2023 Justice Marli Vankung of the Gauhati High Court's Kohima Bench set the order aside in Neizevolie Kuotsu v. State of Nagaland, holding that 'the Chief Secretary was not the appropriate authority to issue the impugned order dated 04.07.2020' and that 'The consumption of dog meat appears to be an accepted norm and food amongst the Nagas even in modern times' Morung Express, 'Morung Legal Digest. People for Animals, Humane Society International/India and the Akhil Bharat Krushi Go Seva Sangh appealed. On 22 April 2026 a Division Bench split: Justice Budi Habung dismissed the appeals as 'devoid of merit', Justice Robin Phukan would have allowed them and restored the ban, and the bench directed the Registry 'to apprise the matter to Hon'ble Chief Justice'; 'Accordingly, the case does not attain finality', and the status quo continues. The state's own animal welfare board, meeting in November 2025, recorded that the High Court had quashed the 2020 order.

The trade the ban was about

In 2017 police at Samaguri in Assam stopped 75 dogs bound for a wholesaler in Dimapur, and Scroll reported that 'A kilo of dog meat is sold between Rs 400 and Rs 500 in Nagaland, where dog meat is a delicacy'. In July 2026 Humane World for Animals India and Pro Rural reported that three wholesalers who had supplied Dimapur, Mokokchung and Manipur for more than two decades had left the trade and handed over 18 dogs, and that 30 women vendors had moved to other work. The trade reaches pets too: Noah's Ark (Nagaland) was receiving 'at least 2-3 missing reports of cats/ dogs' a day in early 2024, and a German Shepherd taken from its kennel in Dimapur's LRC Colony in December 2023 was sold to a dog meat butcher and found alive. No count of dogs traded into or within Nagaland is published. Bonbeno's Assam report carries the other end of that route.

The Gauhati High Court's suo motu case and the Supreme Court

After the Supreme Court on 19 May 2026 directed that 'all High Courts are directed to register a suo motu writ petition' to monitor its stray dog orders, and allowed 'euthanasia in cases involving rabid, incurably ill, or demonstrably dangerous/aggressive dogs', the Gauhati High Court registered WP(C)(Suo Moto)/2/2026 for Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. In August 2026 the bench of Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury recorded that for Nagaland and the other three 'compliance reports have been submitted in the prescribed format', and listed the case for 11 November 2026. The orders behind it are the 22 August 2025 order restoring sterilise-vaccinate-release, the 7 November 2025 order on institutions and the order of 19 May 2026 upholding them. No Nagaland dog bite compensation scheme, and no Gauhati High Court compensation formula for a bite, could be found; Kohima's 2026 notice makes the owner of an unleashed dog liable for compensation without fixing a sum.

Veterinary care: 368 vets, 1,505 livestock each, and one college

For its size, Nagaland is one of the best-staffed states in India for vets.

Nagaland had 368 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, up from 320 in 2021, and 14 of its 165 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 8.5 percent against 25.8 percent for India. Its 168 government institutions are 13 hospitals and polyclinics, 55 dispensaries and 100 aid centres, and its 16 operational mobile veterinary units work out at 2.9 per lakh livestock against India's 0.7. With 5,53,803 livestock in the 2019 census, the state has 1,505 livestock per registered vet against India's 6,106, second only to Kerala's 539 among the states charted here and ahead of Haryana's 2,741, Maharashtra's 2,939 and Karnataka's 5,709, and 16.3 vets per lakh people against 6.3. Its one recognised college, at Jalukie, has 37 approved seats. The plan names that college and the regional laboratory at Khanapara, Guwahati for animal rabies diagnosis. Bonbeno's Vet Access Index ranks every state on the same arithmetic, and its vet directories cover eight cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad, none of them near Nagaland; what a consultation costs is in Bonbeno's guide to what a vet visit costs in India.

Pets and the rules: a yearly licence with no published fee, no pet shop register, and no crematorium

Nagaland's pet rules are municipal, they turn on the rabies vaccine, and almost none of their fees are in print.

The state plan says owned dogs are licensed by the municipality and renewed every year on proof of the rabies vaccine, and the councils run that as a camp: Kohima's covers all 19 wards for 'A minimal fee', and Mokokchung's annual drive in September 2026 kept fees 'unchanged'; neither published the amount, and no Dimapur fee could be read. The same Kohima meeting in September 2026 that ordered a shelter plan still listed compulsory vaccination and registration of pet dogs as a measure to be discussed, which sits oddly beside 'strictly implemented'. The plan itself proposes a state law making 'Registration, Vaccination & Animal birth control (ABC) of Dogs' compulsory, with registration for every shop 'supplying, breeding & importing of pets/exotic pets from outside the state'. Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India covers the portals that exist elsewhere. No register or count of Nagaland's pet shops and breeders could be found; the Pet Shop Rules require a State Board certificate for each, and the Animal Welfare Board's circular of December 2023 recorded that no state but Maharashtra had reported its count. The state board noted in November 2025 that six new districts had no SPCA registered and planned a state dog show at the Hornbill Festival. Bonbeno's pet shops report carries the Rules clause by clause.

Native breeds and end of life: none on the register, and no crematorium

No dog breed named for Nagaland is on ICAR's register of six Indian breeds, a separate list from the Kennel Club of India's breed register, and the dogs most Naga households keep are the Indian pariah dog and the crossbreeds the Kohima wards complain of; Bonbeno's report on the register carries the six. No pet crematorium or pet burial ground in Nagaland could be found, and the only shelter the veterinary department announced, in July 2020, was a temporary space for 15 to 30 animals at Kohima's District Veterinary Hospital. Bonbeno's cremation report lists the nearest facilities, and its guide to when your pet dies in India covers the steps.

What a Nagaland pet owner can do with these numbers

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

1. Licence and vaccinate your dog every year. The licence is renewed on proof of the rabies vaccine, and the ward camps run once a year.
2. Keep your dog inside the compound or on a leash. Kohima impounds an unleashed dog for Rs 2,000 the first time and Rs 3,000 the third.
3. Claim an impounded dog within seven days. After that the owner 'cannot lay claim' to it.
4. After a bite, go the same day. Every rabies death reviewed in 2024 and 2025 involved a delay in getting PEP.
5. Report a dangerous dog to the municipal or town council, not a vigilante notice. Shooting a dog is illegal in Kohima.
6. Report a missing pet quickly. Pets have been stolen and sold to butchers in Dimapur.
7. Buy an animal only from a shop or breeder that can show its State Board certificate. No Nagaland register is published.

What this data does not measure

Nagaland is thinly documented, and the gaps are part of the finding.

• The census row of 342 stray dogs is not a count of dogs on the road, and the 1,56,690 pet dogs are the state plan's reading of the 20th census, not a table Bonbeno has seen. The 21st Livestock Census had published no state table by 11 November 2026.
• The two bite series are different instruments. The plan switches from IDSP weekly formats to the NRCP's monthly format in 2023, and its 2024 figure is 3.3 times the IDSP table's. The dataset computes nothing across them.
• Dimapur's report says both '209 involved stray dogs' and '80% of the cases coming from pet dogs' for the same quarter. Both are printed; neither is chosen.
• The plan's suspected rabies cases are not deaths: its 2021, 2024 and January to July 2025 cases and the IDSP table's three zeros count different things and are printed side by side.
• No sterilisation total exists because the state has no ABC centre; no dog bite compensation scheme or court formula was found.
• No licence fee, pet shop count or pet crematorium could be found published for Kohima, Dimapur or Mokokchung. The dog meat case had no third-judge decision in print by 11 November 2026, and no count of dogs traded is published. Pet spending per household is not here.

How this report was built

Every figure was read from the document cited, and the state's national 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 pet dog figure, bites, rabies cases, budget and ABC position from the State Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination from Nagaland by 2030, downloaded from the Health Ministry's rabies portal and read page by page; Kohima's estimate from Eastern Mirror and the census remark from Morung Express.
2. The IDSP figures are from Annexure I and II to the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025 and the Nagaland Tribune; Dimapur's and the 2026 statements from Morung Express Morung Express, 'World Rabies Day 2026…; the 2021 deaths from The News Mill; the ward councils' letters from the Nagaland Tribune and Morung Express Morung Express, 'AKMWC seeks action against…; the national estimate from the WHO.
3. The pound, school and shooting orders are from Morung Express Morung Express, 'KMC to impound unleashed… Morung Express, 'Kohima authorities discuss… Morung Express, 'KMC issues directives… Morung Express, 'No shoot-at-sight orders, Eastern Mirror Eastern Mirror, 'EM Impact Eastern Mirror, 'Village council… and India Today NE India Today NE, 'Nagaland's Kohima admin…; the scheme figures from PIB and the Lok Sabha Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 275 and the ABC Rules.
4. The court record is from LiveLaw, Morung Express Morung Express, 'Dog meat ban case… Morung Express, 'Nagaland Dog meat ban…, the state's information department, The Sentinel The Sentinel, 'Gauhati HC directs…, Verdictum, the Supreme Court's orders Supreme Court of India and News On AIR; the trade from Scroll and Morung Express Morung Express, 'Wholesalers quit dog meat… Morung Express, 'Increase in missing….
5. The veterinary figures are from the Lok Sabha replies Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 1287 Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question 4449, the Rajya Sabha annexure and the VCI list; the pet figures from the Nagaland Post, Eastern Mirror Eastern Mirror, 'Nagaland govt to build dog…, the Pet Shop Rules and the AWBI circular. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 11 November 2026 through an Apify run of Google's India results for 'stray dogs in nagaland' and 'stray dogs in kohima'.