Thiruvananthapuram district tops in number of dog bite cases in 2024

 

Thiruvananthapuram district is way ahead of other districts in the number of dog bite cases as per government data, with a total of 50,870 persons seeking treatment for dog bite in the district’s government hospitals in 2024. The number is for all kinds of dog bites as separate data is not maintained for stray dog bites, as per documents presented by Minister for Local Self Governments M.B. Rajesh in the Assembly.

Although the city Corporation’s health wing officials admit that the number of stray dog sterilisations under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) need to go up, they attribute the high numbers from the capital to better reporting and to cases from rural areas outside the Corporation limits. Kerala reported a total of 3.17 lakh dog bites last year, out of whom 26 succumbed to rabies. Among the districts, Kollam is in second place with 37,618 dog bite cases, Ernakulam had 32,086 cases, Palakkad had 31,303 cases, and Thrissur 29,363 cases. Wayanad is last in the list with 5,719 cases.

Stray dog population

An amount of ₹47.60 crore was earmarked in the 2024-25 financial year for local bodies in the State for the ABC programme, Rabies-free Kerala project, and for vaccination of stray dogs. The stray dog population in Thiruvananthapuram city is estimated at around 8,000, as per a ground-level survey conducted by the NGO Compassion for Animal Welfare Association (CAWA) for the city Corporation. As per the survey report, the numbers are pegged at 8,679, with a margin for error of 20%, which means that the numbers could range between 6,619 to 10,739.

According to the Corporation’s veterinary surgeon J. Sreerag, the civic body has in recent years been sterilising an average of 100 stray dogs every month, making up an annual number of around 1,200. But this number needs to go up to about 4,000-5,000 sterilisations every year to control the stray dog population effectively.

“Since the ABC programme began in 2013 in the Corporation, we have done about 16,000 sterilisations. Currently, we are a team of 12, including 2 veterinarians. More sterilisations can be done daily once the ongoing work on the modern sterilisation facility attached to the Government Veterinary Hospital in Pettah is completed. The amended Animal Birth Control Rules of 2023 has also made our jobs harder. The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has also not given permission to any NGOs in the city to be part of the ABC drive, which could have helped in controlling numbers,” says Mr. Sreerag.

The rules in 2023 had prompted the AWBI to revoke the permission given to Kudumbashree to sterilise stray dogs. Besides, they contained provisions such as the requirement for veterinarians with an experience of at least 2,000 surgeries to commence the ABC centres.