The suggestion in court hearings and in recent media coverage that community dogs are a menace has come as a surprise to many of us working in international dog welfare and public health.
After years of measurable public-health progress, human-canine interactions in India appear to be as compassionate and tolerant as they have ever been.
Yet India is now being told it has a growing “dog problem”
This is not to suggest that there are no challenges – until there are zero human rabies deaths, no one can claim the job is done. But the tone of the debate does not reflect the data nor reality.
Rabies deaths and dog bites in India have declined substantially over the past two decades. A study published in The Lancet: Infectious Diseases in 2025 found that rabies deaths had fallen to around 5,700 per year in 2022 and 2023 as compared to 20,000 deaths per year reported in 2003.
The same study reported a dog bite incidence of 5.6 per 1,000 persons in 2022 and 2023, which is approximately three times lower than the incidence of 15.6 per 1,000 persons reported in 2003 using the same community survey methodology.
The Lancet study also called for accelerated action in India to reach the goal of eliminating rabies infections by 2030. The infection is caused...
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