Stray dogs in Tripura, 2026: 17,078 counted in 2019 and up 67.5 percent while India's count fell, 9,641 dog bites in 2024 in the national table, 1,200 dogs in Agartala by the corporation's own survey, one ABC centre at Hapania, dogs carried out of the state in jute sacks, 46.3 percent of government vet posts vacant, 12 unlicensed pet shops ordered shut, and a High Court with no stray dog case on record

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

Tripura is small, its dogs are few for its people, and most of what a reader would want to know about them has never been counted. Sixteen rows, from the documents that exist.

Two rows carry the weight. The census counted 17,078 stray dogs in Tripura in 2019, 67.5 percent more than in 2012, in the same years India's count fell, and the national surveillance table recorded 9,641 dog bites in the state in 2024, more than three times the 3,051 of 2022. Almost everything between those two rows, how many dogs have been sterilised, what a bite costs a family, what a licence costs, is a blank the state has not filled, and this report says so row by row.

How many stray dogs Tripura has: 17,078 in the census and 1,200 in Agartala

Tripura's census count rose fast from a low base, and its capital's own survey found remarkably few dogs.

Tripura had 17,078 stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019, up 67.5 percent from 10,195 in 2012, while India's count fell 10.7 percent; that is 4.3 dogs for every 1,000 people against a national 11.5 National Commission on Population, a lower rate than Maharashtra's 10.4, Karnataka's 17.3 or Tamil Nadu's 5.8, and the eighth-largest rise of any state or territory. In 2012 15.5 percent of the state's dogs were counted in urban areas, about 1,580 dogs, and the 2019 census also counted 3,361 stray cattle. In January 2026 the Agartala Municipal Corporation said 'a recent survey conducted by the civic body revealed the presence of more than 1,200 stray dogs on roads and in various localities across Agartala'; Mayor Dipak Majumder announced it with a plan for a dedicated shelter home. The survey's method was not published, but its figure sits close to the census's urban share, which is rare: in Bengaluru, Mumbai or Delhi a city estimate and a census count can differ several times over. In February 2026 the Chief Minister, Dr Manik Saha, asked officials for 'the total number of stray animals in the state', so the state itself had no current total. Bonbeno's street dog report carries every state's census row.

Dogs that leave Tripura in jute sacks

Tripura's dogs are also counted by the people who move them. In September 2019 police at the Santipur check post in North Tripura 'found five grownup dogs tied inside jute sacks' in a vehicle bound for Mizoram, and said 'each grownup dog fetches between Rs.2, 000 and Rs.2, 500 in Mizoram and Nagaland'. In February 2026 India Today NE reported that 'Agartala has witnessed an alarming spate of street dogs going missing from several localities', with at least four complaints, men using jute bags and claiming to work for NGOs, and the NGO Pawsome denying any part in it. No Tripura police total for dogs seized could be found published. The trade runs against the law of the destination as well: the Gauhati High Court's Kohima bench quashed Nagaland's 2020 ban on dog meat in 2023, and Bonbeno's Assam report carries that judgment and the seizures on the Assam route. A dog carried out of the state is lost to any count, and a sterilised dog taken from its street undoes the work done on it.

Dog bites and rabies: 9,641 in 2024, an older series that fell, and one hospital's four years

Three records of bites exist for Tripura, each counting something different, and none of them comes from the state itself.

The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha gives Tripura 3,051 dog bites in 2022, 6,510 in 2023, 9,641 in 2024 and 1,266 in January 2025, with one suspected rabies death in 2023 and one in 2024. The rise of 216 percent in two years is three times India's 69.7 percent, yet the 2024 rate of 230.4 bites per lakh people is below India's 265.7 and far below Tamil Nadu's 623.2, Karnataka's 530.7 or Maharashtra's 381.1; Delhi's is 115.9. Against the census, 9,641 bites is 56.5 for every 100 counted street dogs, more than twice India's 24.3, which says more about how few dogs the census found than about how often they bite. An earlier parliamentary reply of 16 December 2022, as tabulated by dogproblem.in, gave Tripura 8,660 dog bites in 2019, 7,665 in 2020, 3,616 in 2021 and 2,650 for 2022 before that year ended; the primary annexure could not be opened, and the two series are printed side by side, not joined. At the anti-rabies centre of Agartala Government Medical College and GBP Hospital, Acharjee and Saha analysed 2,612 animal bite victims over 2018 to 2021: 'Most of the animal bites were dog (57.58%), followed by cat (21.36%)', 68.3 percent of victims were male, 71.17 percent of bites were second category and 8.92 percent third, and 'The winter months had higher frequencies of animal bites'. One in five bites at Agartala's main hospital came from a cat, which no stray dog programme touches. Bonbeno's dog bite report prints the IDSP series for every state.

Rabies: one death a year in the table, and a boy in Dhalai

The IDSP table's one suspected rabies death a year is the only count in print, and no Tripura health department figure could be found; the ICMR estimates 5,726 rabies deaths a year in India against the 54 the national table recorded in 2024, 14 of them in Maharashtra Press Information Bureau, Stray dogs. In April 2025 a four-year-old, Manik Tripura of Dhumachhara Bhud Kishore Para, died of rabies after he was 'bitten by a dog over a month ago' and his family turned to rituals; he was referred from Manughat Hospital to Dhalai District Hospital and died on the way, and residents told the reporter that 'seeking spiritual remedies for dog bites is rare in Tripura'. In October 2023 a dog bit 'at least 25 people' on the Briddhinagar to Kashipur stretch of the national highway outside Agartala, and they were taken to the 'rabies clinics of IGM and GB Hospitals'. Rabies also kills livestock: in Rajnagar village, North Tripura, a rabid stray dog attacked cattle on the night of 12 January 2026, and by February villagers said '19 cows have already died till today', alleging the veterinary team gave each animal one dose and left owners to give the rest. The National Health Mission in Tripura lists a state nodal officer and eight district nodal officers for rabies and says anti-rabies vaccine and serum are to be available 'upto PHC level'.

The Animal Birth Control programme and the orders: one centre at Hapania, shelters for 20 towns, and a Chief Secretary summoned

Tripura's programme was announced in February 2026, after the Supreme Court had named the state as a defaulter.

On 10 February 2026 the Animal Resources Development Department's Secretary, Deepa D. Nair, said 'An Animal Birth Control centre has already been established at Hapania in Agartala' by the corporation, 'while an animal shelter is functioning at R.K. Nagar', that 'nodal officers have been posted at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, bus stands and railway stations', that 'Dedicated helplines have been launched', and that 'all hospitals in the state have sufficient stocks of anti-rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin'. PTI's account of the same briefing said 'Stray dogs caught by civic bodies will be sterilised and vaccinated before being sent to shelter homes', that two registered NGOs were rehabilitating dogs, that state and district veterinary hospitals would serve as temporary centres until dedicated ABC centres were built, and that the corporation and other urban local bodies would form joint task forces; the state's three gaushalas hold more than 2,000 cows, all rescued by security forces from smuggling to Bangladesh. Three days earlier the Chief Minister had reviewed shelter homes across 20 Nagar Panchayat areas and ABC centres under construction for the Agartala corporation, the Dharmanagar council and six other districts. No count of dogs sterilised at Hapania, no helpline number and no cost per dog could be found published. At the 70 percent coverage the Centre's advisory sets, the census population needs about 12,000 dogs sterilised; the Centre's revised scheme pays Rs 800 a dog, and the Animal Welfare Board released no ABC grant to any state in the four years to 2024-25. In April 2026 a Better World volunteer in North Tripura told India Development Review 'We are entirely reliant on donations'.

What the Supreme Court said of Tripura, and which High Court watches it

In October 2025 the Supreme Court listed Tripura among the states that had filed no compliance report and called its Chief Secretary to appear in person on 3 November, Justice Vikram Nath saying 'The 2023 Rules are not optional'. The 11 August 2025 order for Delhi-NCR drew the Tipra Motha chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma to call it 'hasty, inhumane, and lacking strategic planning'; the 22 August order restored release after sterilisation for healthy dogs nationally; the 7 November order covered schools, hospitals, bus stands and stations. In its judgment of 19 May 2026 the Court told every High Court to register a suo motu petition to monitor compliance, Chief Secretaries to file reports before their High Court by 7 August, and the High Courts to send a consolidated report to the Supreme Court by 17 November 2026. No such case in the High Court of Tripura could be found published. The High Court has sat separately since March 2013, when the Gauhati High Court's judges for the state became its judges, yet in August 2026 The Sentinel reported that the Gauhati High Court had 'reportedly' directed the governments of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram 'and Tripura' to keep dogs and cattle off the highways; Tripura is outside that court's jurisdiction, and the report is printed here as the newspaper's.

Veterinary care: 558 vets, 46.3 percent of posts vacant, and 462 aid centres

Tripura has more vets per head than almost any large state, and one of the emptiest government veterinary services in India.

Tripura had 558 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, up from 413 in 2021, but 161 of its 348 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 46.3 percent against 25.8 percent for India; among the states only Gujarat's 55.9 percent is higher. Its 543 government institutions are 16 hospitals and polyclinics, 65 dispensaries and 462 aid centres, so more than eight in ten are aid centres, and its 13 operational mobile veterinary units cover 1.0 per lakh livestock against India's 0.7. With 13,17,892 livestock in the 2019 census, the state has 2,362 livestock per registered vet against India's 6,106 and Maharashtra's 2,939, and 13.3 vets per lakh people against 6.3; its one recognised college has 63 approved seats. The registered vets exist; the government posts that would put them in a rural dispensary are half empty, which is the shortfall the Rajnagar villagers described. 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, and none of them Agartala; the Kolkata report is the nearest.

What the 543 institutions are

Of Tripura's 543 government veterinary institutions on 31 March 2024, 462 were aid centres, 65 dispensaries and 16 hospitals or polyclinics. Karnataka has 1,381 aid centres among 4,254 institutions and Tamil Nadu 921 among 3,869, so Tripura's network leans on its smallest unit far more than the large states do. A dog owner outside Agartala is far more likely to meet an aid centre than a hospital, and the February 2026 plan made the state veterinary hospital and the district hospitals the temporary home for caught dogs until ABC centres are built.

Pets and the rules: 12 unlicensed pet shops ordered shut, no licence on record, and no crematorium

Tripura's one recorded pet rule came from its High Court, and the rest of the record is empty.

In November 2021 a Division Bench of the High Court of Tripura, Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.G. Chattopadhyay, hearing a 2015 PIL on cruelty to animals and the conditions of stray animals and pets in Agartala, recorded an affidavit from the Animal Resources Development Department that 12 pet shops in the city ran without registration, and directed that illegal pet shops and breeding centres 'shall immediately be closed down' EastMojo (Chandan Panday); the petitioner's counsel had put the number at nine, and the court quoted Rule 3 of the Pet Shop Rules, 'no person shall operate a pet shop without registration'. No later count of registered shops could be found, and the Animal Welfare Board's circular of December 2023 recorded that no state had reported its count. In December 2024 the same court, hearing a lawyer's PIL over cattle carried 'in an inhumane manner' through Kailashahar, held that the Act of 1960 and its rules 'do need to be observed scrupulously at all levels'. No Agartala Municipal Corporation licence fee, portal or registration count could be read; Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India covers the portals that exist. 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 Tripura is among the six on ICAR's register or the six Indian breeds the Kennel Club of India recognises, which come from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; the one northeastern name on the lists, the Haofa Tangkhul Hui of Manipur, is not registered, and the dog most of the state shares a road with is the Indian pariah dog. Bonbeno's report on the register carries the six. No pet crematorium in Agartala could be found, and Bonbeno's cremation report, whose nearest listed city is Kolkata and which has no entry for the northeast, is the place to check; its guide to when your pet dies in India covers the steps.

What a Tripura pet owner can do with these numbers

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

1. Go to a government hospital the same day after any bite. The state says every hospital holds vaccine and immunoglobulin; a boy in Dhalai died after a month of rituals.
2. Treat a cat bite the same way. Cats caused 21.36 percent of the bites at Agartala's teaching hospital.
3. Vaccinate your own dog against rabies. The Chief Minister asked for domestic animals to be vaccinated in February 2026.
4. Report a rabid dog to your local body and the police at once. A single dog bit 25 people outside Agartala in 2023.
5. Report anyone carrying street dogs in sacks. Dogs fetch Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 each across the border into Mizoram and Nagaland.
6. Know which order applies to your building. Institutional premises are cleared to shelters; a residential road gets its sterilised dogs back under rule 11(19).
7. Buy an animal only from a shop that can show its State Board registration. The High Court ordered unregistered pet shops in Agartala closed in 2021.

What this data does not measure

Each figure here was produced by a different office for a different purpose, and for Tripura the gaps outnumber the figures.

• The dog count is a 2019 census and a 2026 city survey without a published method. The 21st Livestock Census had published no state table by 11 November 2026, and the state had no current total of its own.
• The bite series are different instruments. The IDSP table counts what reporting facilities send up; the 2019 to 2022 series is read from a secondary tabulation of a parliamentary reply whose annexure could not be opened; the AGMC study counts all animal bites at one centre. The dataset computes nothing across them.
• No state source gives a yearly bite count or rabies deaths; the IDSP's one death a year is the only figure, and incidents are reported only when a newspaper carries them.
• No sterilisation total, cost per dog or helpline number was found for the Hapania centre or the state.
• No compensation scheme or court formula for a dog bite exists in Tripura that could be found, and no figure for anything paid.
• No published record of the High Court of Tripura's suo motu case under the Supreme Court's May 2026 judgment was found, and The Sentinel's report naming Tripura in a Gauhati High Court direction could not be checked against an order.
• No count of dogs taken out of the state, no Agartala licence fee or count, no registered pet shop list after 2021 and no pet crematorium were found. 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 Agartala survey from India Today NE.
2. The bite figures are from Annexure I and II to the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025, dogproblem.in's tabulation of the reply of 16 December 2022, the IJCMPH study by Acharjee and Saha, Northeast News, Northeast Herald Northeast Herald, NHM Tripura and the WHO India page.
3. The programme and court figures are from India Today NE India Today NE (Tanmoy Chakraborty) India Today NE (Tanmoy Chakraborty) India Today NE, 'Pradyot Manikya slams SC…, ThePrint (PTI), India Development Review, NE Now, tripuranet, Verdictum, The Sentinel, the High Court's history page, All India Radio, the Supreme Court's orders Supreme Court of India, the ABC Rules, PIB and the Lok Sabha reply of 2 December 2025.
4. 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 LiveLaw, EastMojo, the High Court's order of 19 December 2024, the Pet Shop Rules and the AWBI circular. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 11 November 2026 through Apify runs of Google's India results; the runs for 'stray dogs in tripura', 'dog bite cases in tripura' and 'stray dogs in agartala' returned no box.