Dogs on the loose, budgets on a leash

Municipal corporations have been spending less on stray dogs

The Supreme Court’s decision to round up stray dogs in Delhi NCR is likely to stretch the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to its limits — and years of chronic underspending may be a big reason why.

In 2021–22, MCD spent Rs 5.9 crore on stray dogs, of which Rs 5 crore went towards sterilisation and just Rs 70 lakh towards building sterilisation centres. A Delhi Assembly panel estimated the stray dog population at 8 lakh in 2019, up from 5.6 lakh in the MCD’s last census in 2009.

Comparable trends are visible in other metros. Bengaluru’s Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) spent Rs 9.4 crore tackling stray dogs in FY22, while Mumbai’s BMC spent Rs 11.2 crore in the same year.

The low spending comes even as dog bite cases—not all are due to stray dogs—have surged. In Delhi, reported cases jumped nearly fourfold from 6,691 in 2022 to 25,210 in 2024. In January 2025 alone, the city logged 3,196 cases. However, there may be more dog bite cases than the official figures suggest.

Delhi had budget to spend Rs 16,000 crore in FY23, while BMC's total budget was Rs 45,949 crore, whereas Bengaluru's budget was a little over Rs 10,000 crore.

Mumbai too undershot targets. Of the Rs 3 crore it budgeted for sterilisation in FY24, it spent Rs 2.4 crore. Its rabies control spending stood at Rs 9 crore, short of the Rs 11.6 crore allocated.

Data going back to FY13 shows a persistent pattern of underspending on stray dog management — a trend that could make meeting the Supreme Court’s new mandate far more challenging for the MCD.