Stray dogs in West Bengal, 2026: 11,40,165 counted in 2019, the lowest recorded dog-bite rate of any large state at 77 per lakh and a count that tripled in two years anyway, one rabies death on the record, a capital that has never counted its dogs, 2,724 vets for 3.75 crore livestock, and a Rs 100 dog licence

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

West Bengal's numbers are few, and the state's own claim about them does not survive its own figure. Sixteen rows, from thirteen sources.

Two rows carry the weight. West Bengal's recorded bite rate, 77 per lakh, is the lowest of any large state and its count tripled in two years, and the figure the state offered in September 2025 as proof that bites had fallen is the same number the national table gives for January 2025 alone. The rest of this report is about a state whose dog numbers are small because few are written down.

How many stray dogs West Bengal has: 11.4 lakh in 2019, almost unchanged since 2012, and a capital with two guesses twenty times apart

The census says the state's dogs did not move in seven years. Kolkata's corporation has said 1.5 lakh and 8,000 within six years of each other.

West Bengal had 11,40,165 stray dogs in the 20th Livestock Census of 2019, 1.5 percent fewer than the 11,57,170 of 2012, the sixth-largest count of any state, and 11.8 dogs for every 1,000 people, almost exactly the national 11.5 National Commission on Population. In 2012, 21.5 percent of its stray dogs were counted in urban areas and the rest in rural ones; the 2019 census also recorded 98,733 stray cattle. The census is a household-enumerator estimate by village and ward, and Bonbeno's street dog report explains why it under-reads cities; the 21st Livestock Census had published no state stray dog table by 2 November 2026.

Kolkata: 1.5 lakh in 2017, 8,000 in 2023, and no survey behind either

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation said in October 2017 that the city had 'over 1.5 lakh stray dogs' and launched a drive to sterilise 25 a day with two camps in each of its 144 wards, and in January 2023, adding five veterinary ambulances for about Rs 44 lakh and planning a pound at Topsia, that it had 'about 8000 stray dogs' and had vaccinated about 23,000. No survey has ever been published, and Bonbeno's Kolkata report explains why its dataset is the vet directory itself: nothing public competes. Howrah, Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Durgapur and Asansol appear in this report only through the Rs 1 crore the state gave three corporations for sterilisation and the Calcutta High Court's request for reports from Kolkata and Bidhannagar.

Dog bites and rabies: the lowest rate in India, a count that tripled, one death, and a claim of a fall that rests on a January figure

West Bengal's bite table is the smallest of the large states and the fastest rising. Both facts are about who reports.

The IDSP table laid before the Lok Sabha gives West Bengal 22,627 dog bites in 2022, 48,664 in 2023, 76,486 in 2024 and 10,264 in January 2025, 76.8 per lakh people in 2024 against 265.7 for India and the lowest rate of any state with more than five crore people, with no suspected rabies death in 2022 or 2023 and one in 2024. The IDSP counts presentations at reporting public facilities, so a state whose count tripled in two years while its census count stood still is a state whose facilities began reporting, and a rate a third of the national one with a dog population a hair above the national rate is a state where most bites are still not written down. Bonbeno's dog bite report prints the IDSP series for every state so that West Bengal's 77 per lakh can be set beside Tamil Nadu's 623 and Maharashtra's 381; the same table gives Odisha, next door, 375.

The fall that is a January

On 3 September 2025 a senior state official told IANS that 'data for the first seven months of 2025 showed that incidents of dog bites have decreased in West Bengal', giving 10,264 people injured in those seven months against 76,486 'last year', and an official of the Animal Resources Development department said that 'both sterilisation and adoption have made dogs safer, and humans too are now relatively safe'. The figure of 10,264 is the IDSP table's count for January 2025 alone, laid before the Lok Sabha five months earlier, and a seven-month figure that stops in July would also leave out the humid monsoon months in which other states record their peaks; if it is the seven-month total, bites fell by about 80 percent in a year, and if it is January's, the claim has no figure behind it. No source explains the match, and this report prints both and adopts neither. The public interest litigation filed by advocate Akash Sharma before the Calcutta High Court in August 2025 cited the same 76,486 and 10,264 and one suspected death, sought anti-rabies vaccination drives, Animal Birth Control programmes, enforcement of the welfare laws and a monitoring committee, and alleged that civic bodies had not followed the ABC Rules, 2023. The ICMR estimate for India is 5,726 rabies deaths a year against the 54 the surveillance table recorded in 2024; a state of ten crore people with one recorded death is where that gap is widest after Telangana's zero.

The Animal Birth Control programme: 25 to 30 dogs a day in Kolkata, Rs 1 crore for three corporations, a 4,000-dog pound announced, and a central grant of zero

Kolkata's corporation says it is the only one in India with a department for stray dogs. Its output is a daily figure, not a yearly one.

'We are the only municipality in the country that has a separate department for stray dogs', the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's deputy mayor Atin Ghosh told IANS in September 2025, saying 'an average of 25-30 dogs are sterilised every day', while the Animal Resources Development department said it had given Rs 1 crore to the Kolkata, Howrah and Bidhannagar corporations for sterilisation and its minister, Swapan Debnath, that his department had intensified drives since the previous year and that 'there is a lack of awareness among the common man about Animal Birth Control'. Twenty-five to thirty a day is 9,000 to 11,000 a year, which is the 2017 drive's rate of 25 a day restated; against the 2017 estimate of 1.5 lakh dogs it would take fifteen years, and against the 2023 estimate of 8,000 it would have finished in one. Bengaluru's 2023 survey measured 71.81 percent of its dogs sterilised and Pune sterilises 57,852 a year by its state's account; Kolkata has measured nothing and publishes a daily rate. The corporation's pound at Dhapa holds about 300 dogs; in November 2025, after the Supreme Court's order, it announced an eco-friendly pound beside Dhapa for over 4,000, ward-wise vaccination camps with contracted vets, and the filling of five vacant veterinary posts, a plan that drew the Kolkata leg of the protests held in 31 cities on 4 January 2026. Bonbeno's Kolkata report carries the pound and the camps in detail. No corporation in the state publishes an annual sterilisation total.

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 on 19 May 2026 it upheld those directions. Kolkata's 4,000-dog pound is its answer to the November order.

Veterinary care: 2,724 registered vets for 3.75 crore livestock, 2.7 per lakh people, one college, and 41 private clinics in Kolkata

West Bengal has the third-worst ratio of livestock to vets in India and trains a hundred a year.

West Bengal had 2,724 registered veterinary practitioners on 31 March 2024, up from 2,529 in 2021, and 224 of its 1,445 sanctioned government veterinary doctor posts were vacant in December 2025, 15.5 percent against 25.8 percent for India. Its 3,338 government institutions are 113 veterinary hospitals and polyclinics, 616 dispensaries and 2,609 aid centres, and its 218 operational mobile veterinary units cover 0.6 per lakh livestock against the central norm of one. With 3,74,83,238 livestock in the 2019 census, the state has 13,760 livestock per registered vet, more than twice India's 6,106 and worse than every state but Telangana and Jharkhand, 11,229 per government institution against 7,906, and 2.7 vets per lakh people against 6.3, which Bonbeno's Vet Access Index places 33rd of 35 states and territories; its one recognised veterinary college has 100 approved seats, against Tamil Nadu's seven colleges and 640. The vacancy rate is better than average and the ratio near the worst, because the sanctioned strength itself is small for the herd and the people.

The private layer in Kolkata

Bonbeno's Kolkata vet directory lists 41 clinics and hospitals, 12 of which publish round-the-clock opening, 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 pull returned 60 records and 19 were dropped, among them a street named Animal Hospital Road and the West Bengal Veterinary Council. The Google Maps pull returned 79 pet stores and 15 aquarium or bird shops in the first 100 results for 'pet shop', 16 of whose names advertise live animals, and the lowest share with a website of the eight cities, 18 percent. 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 Rs 100 licence under a 1980 Act, pet shops before the High Court, no native breed, and a burial ground

West Bengal's pet rules are Kolkata's, and Kolkata's are a line on a rate card and a case in court.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation registers a dog for Rs 100 plus a Rs 50 processing fee under section 521 of its Act, charges Rs 10 a day to hold an impounded dog, and takes applications online behind its citizen login Kolkata Municipal Corporation; the corporation's server returned an error to every attempt to re-read the rate card on 2 November 2026, so the figures are those Bonbeno's guide read on 18 September 2026. The corporation publishes no uptake. No state rule exists; in Howrah, Siliguri or Durgapur the requirement is whatever that body has notified, and Bonbeno's guide to dog registration in India walks the Kolkata portal beside every other city's. Housing societies work under the Animal Welfare Board of India's guideline, which Bonbeno's guide to pets in apartments in India reads.

Pet shops and breeders: 'sold like vegetables', and a notice from the Chief Justice

In September 2024 a division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya issued notice to the state on CAPE Foundation's petition that 'despite there being comprehensive rules issued in 2017 and 2018, pets such as dogs were being sold through unregistered shops across the state of West Bengal', counsel telling the court that 'dogs are being sold like vegetables by these unregistered shops', and directed a report before the next hearing. The Rules require a certificate from the State Animal Welfare Board for every shop that sells an animal and every breeder; the Animal Welfare Board of India's circular of December 2023 recorded that no state had provided its number of registered establishments, and West Bengal has published no register since. Bonbeno's pet shops report carries the Rules clause by clause and the one state register that exists, Tamil Nadu's.

Native breeds: none named for West Bengal

No dog breed named for West Bengal is on ICAR's register of six Indian breeds or on the standard list of twenty, and the dog most of the state shares a street with is the Indian pariah dog. Bonbeno's report on the register carries the six.

When a pet dies: no crematorium, and a cemetery in New Town

West Bengal has no municipal pet crematorium. The New Town Kolkata Development Authority runs a pet dog cemetery in Action Area III, charging Rs 2,500 for a burial against a death certificate from a recognised veterinary doctor, with a creche and clinic beside it; Kolkata's corporation operates none, and Jamshedpur's gas crematorium, across the border in Jharkhand, charges Rs 3,000. 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 West Bengal pet owner can do with these numbers

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

1. In Kolkata, register the dog for Rs 100. It is the cheapest licence of any large city and the corporation can hold an unregistered dog at Rs 10 a day; elsewhere, ask the municipality, because no state rule applies.
2. Vaccinate against rabies on schedule and treat every bite as urgent. The state's one recorded death in 2024 is a count of what is reported, not of rabies; Kolkata gives the vaccine free at 18 centres.
3. Pick the 24-hour clinic before you need it. Twelve of Kolkata's 41 listed clinics publish round-the-clock opening in Bonbeno's directory; outside the city, 218 mobile units cover six in ten of the norm.
4. Know which order applies to your building. Institutional premises are fenced and cleared to the pound under the 7 November 2025 order; a residential para gets its sterilised dogs back under rule 11(19).
5. Ask the corporation for sterilisation, not removal. It says it does 25 to 30 a day and has a department for the purpose; a lane of unnotched adult dogs is the fact to report.
6. Buy an animal only from a shop or breeder that can show its State Board certificate. The High Court has been told the unregistered trade is open; the pet shops report lists what to ask.
7. Know that the end-of-life option is burial. New Town's cemetery charges Rs 2,500; there is no municipal crematorium in the state.

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; Kolkata's two figures are officials' remarks six years apart, and the 21st Livestock Census had published no state table by 2 November 2026.
• The bite series is a reporting series. Tripling in two years with an unchanged census count means facilities joined the system, and the lowest rate in India means most have not; nothing in the table separates dogs from reporting.
• The 2025 fall is unverified. The seven-month figure the state gave is identical to the IDSP's January figure; the dataset prints it with that flag, and no later state figure had been read.
• Sterilisation is a daily rate, not a total. No West Bengal corporation publishes an annual figure, and the Rs 1 crore to three corporations is not matched to a number of dogs.
• One recorded rabies death in three years is a count of reporting; the ICMR estimate implies every state's record is low, and the corporation's 'none since 2013' is a claim about Kolkata, not the state.
• The licence figures could not be re-read on the day because the corporation's server returned an error; they are the rate card as read on 18 September 2026.
• The pet shop case's outcome has not been read, and the register the Rules require does not exist in public.
• The directory and Google Maps pulls are a window on Kolkata, not the state; Howrah, Siliguri, Durgapur and Asansol have no comparable layer 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; Kolkata's estimates from the Millennium Post of 3 October 2017 and 27 January 2023 Millennium Post, 'KMC plans to set up dog….
2. The bite and rabies figures are from Annexure I and II to the Lok Sabha reply of 1 April 2025, IANS of 3 September 2025 as carried by MENAFN and LiveLaw's report of the public interest litigation of 8 August 2025; the national estimate from the WHO India page.
3. The sterilisation, pound, grant and order figures are from IANS, the Millennium Post of 11 November 2025, The Plurals of 3 January 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 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 and burial figures are from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's rate card and application page Kolkata Municipal Corporation, LiveLaw of 10 September 2024, the Pet Shop Rules, the AWBI circular and the NKDA's service page. The People Also Ask questions were captured on 2 November 2026 through an Apify run of Google's India results for the focus keyword.