Every card below is derived from real, sourced datasets on Explore, computed, not invented. Where India simply doesn't publish the underlying data, we say so instead of filling the gap.
The biggest single finding
Officially, 54 people died of rabies in India in 2024. Independent modelling puts the real number at roughly 19,000 a year, about 352x higher.
The 54 figure comes from passive surveillance: cases that reach a hospital and get reported up through the system. The 19,000 figure comes from a peer-reviewed community survey designed to catch the deaths that surveillance misses, mostly in rural areas with poor access to care. The gap between them is the clearest evidence that India's rabies burden is measured far less than it needs to be.
54
Reported (2024)
NCDC / Union Health Ministry, reported to Parliament (via Lok Sabha reply, cited July 2025)
~19,000
Modelled estimate
18,000-20,000/yr range
Government NCDC, reported to Parliament · Research peer-reviewed burden modelling, 2024
Population
Uttar Pradesh has the highest estimated street-dog population at 28,00,000.
Combines NAPRE 2024-2025 state reporting, municipal dog censuses, and 20th Livestock Census baselines projected forward. All 29 states covered; low-confidence projections are flagged.
Uttar Pradesh28,00,000 dogs
Odisha21,00,000 dogs
Maharashtra17,00,000 dogs
Rajasthan15,00,000 dogs
Tamil Nadu12,00,000 dogs
Karnataka11,50,000 dogs
Andhra Pradesh11,00,000 dogs
Gujarat11,00,000 dogs
Estimate NAPRE reporting (2024-2025), municipal censuses, projected census baselines.
Sterilisation (ABC)
Only 6 places in the country have a citable ABC coverage figure at all.
Delhi's own 2022-23 survey found fewer than half of its ~10 lakh community dogs sterilised. Lucknow, by contrast, reported 83% coverage in late 2024, but that's one city, not a state. In October 2025, the Supreme Court found only 2 of 28 states/UTs had even filed the sterilisation-compliance reports it ordered. Coverage is not just low in most of India; it is not tracked.
Delhi45%
Goa60%
Lucknow83%
Udaipur70%
Mumbai55%
Chennai40%
Research Delhi survey (2022-23) · Government Lucknow Municipal Corporation (2024)
The biggest gap is data itself
Most states are missing most metrics, including the one metric they were ordered to publish.
You can't manage what you can't measure. Closing these gaps, not adding another opinion about what should be done, is the highest-leverage thing this platform and its contributors can do.