What will happen if all stray dogs of India were gone? Disease and pestilence would kill people.

Author: Prasenjit Dutta,

• Retired Civil Engineer
• Founder and Former Secretary of Pashupati Animal Welfare Society-PAWS at Barasat, Kolkata.
• Proprietor, RKD Pet Shop at Barasat.

So, what is supposed to happen if they are all crammed into pounds euphemistically known as shelters?

To the dog hating public that’s supposed to be a relief, but that will be short-lived. They will just have a month to rejoice! All sorts of small wildlife would emerge from the bushes and enter houses, if within 50 km of forest lands, tigers, hyenas, wolves and leopards would be visiting regularly for delicious human children. Those cities that have thickly wooded areas within city limits would suffer most and would become uninhabitable for humans. Scarcity of food in forests highly poached and encroached upon by humans, the wild predators would have no other choice.

Here’s a list of Indian cities known to have sizable areas of thickly wooded lands either within the city limits or very close to the outskirts: Just see how widely the nation would be affected, because our conservancy in forests leaves a lot to be desired.

North India:

1. Delhi (NCT) – Ridge forests (Northern, Central, South-Central, and Southern Ridge); Sanjay Van; Aravalli forests.
2. Chandigarh – Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary, Kansal & Nepli forests, Leisure Valley.
3. Dehradun (Uttarakhand) – Surrounded by Sal forests, Malsi Deer Park area, Rajaji National Park outskirts.
4. Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) – Dense Deodar and Pine forests within and around city.
5. Jammu – Forest belts around Nagrota and Raika; near Trikuta hills.

West & Central India:

1. Jaipur (Rajasthan) – Nahargarh Biological Park, Jhalana Forest, parts of Aravalli range.
2. Udaipur (Rajasthan) – Hills and forested areas around Fatehsagar and Sajjangarh sanctuary.
3. Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) – Van Vihar National Park, Kerwa & Kolar forests.
4. Nagpur (Maharashtra) – Gorewada forest, Seminary Hills.

South India:

1. Bengaluru (Karnataka) – Turahalli Forest, Bannerghatta National Park outskirts, Hessarghatta grasslands.
2. Mysuru (Karnataka) – Chamundi Hill forests, nearby Bandipur and Nagarhole forest belts.
3. Hyderabad (Telangana) – KBR National Park, Mrugavani National Park, Mahavir Harina Vanasthali Park, Nallamala forests not far.
4. Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) – Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Neyyar forests, Agasthyamala foothills.
5. Kochi (Kerala) – Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary (within city), forests on outskirts like Thattekad.

East & Northeast India:

1. Kolkata (West Bengal) – East Kolkata Wetlands, Santragachi Jheel, nearby Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary; dense greenery in Salt Lake wetlands belt.
2. Bhubaneswar (Odisha) – Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary, Khandagiri-Udayagiri hills.
3. Ranchi (Jharkhand) – Surrounded by Sal forests, Tagore Hill, Patratu valley outskirts.
4. Guwahati (Assam) – Deepor Beel wetlands, Nilachal Hills, Garbhanga Reserve Forest.
5. Shillong (Meghalaya) – Dense Khasi Hills forests around the city.
6. Imphal (Manipur) – Langol Hills forest area.

Some of the above cities in the North East already have almost no stray dogs on the streets. But incursions of wild predators into villages and adjoining urban areas is pretty common. What would be the fate of other cities that have dogs but won’t have them if the worst happens.

It would be a disillusionment to some of the dog loving public who weep and cry for the sufferings of strays on the streets and want them to be put into some ‘home’–not their own homes of course.

See below, such a shelter at Rohini area of N. Delhi that was raided by animal lovers in August 2025 that brought to fore some horrendous scenes of suspected dog meat trade.

All shelters throughout India put together can’t house lacs of strays in barest minimum comfort of just food, water and 1 sq. metre of covered space to lie down at. With no other space to move around without colliding with other dogs, it would be as bad as World War 2 concentration camps of Nazis.

Dogs being singled out as the cause of Rabies is quite a mistake. Culprits next in line are Monkeys and Bats. Unlike dogs, they can rarely be caught easily. Also, the symptoms of Rabies in those two animals are quite different from what is seen in dogs. Hence identification would be very difficult, even if they were possible to catch. So dogs are the least of the 3 evils, because they spend their time day and night defending their territories (Human habitations) from ingress of such animals. Some of them get infected and fall prey to Rabies during their skirmishes with monkeys and bats when we are fast asleep. They are the protectors of mankind against many other zoonotic diseases as well and it would only be wise to keep a manageable number of dogs in the community in sterilized and vaccinated condition.

See the researched facts about Rabies in Monkeys and Bats:

Monkeys (primates):

• Monkeys can get rabies if bitten by a rabid animal.
• They are not natural reservoirs of rabies (unlike dogs who have the natural habit of biting each other in fights), but they are susceptible to infection and can transmit it if infected.
• So they are not just “carriers” — they can develop the disease and pass it on via bites or scratches contaminated with saliva.

Bats:

• Bats are important reservoirs of rabies in many parts of the world (especially in the Americas).
• In India and most of Asia, bats are rarely confirmed as reservoirs for classical rabies virus, but they can carry rabies-related lyssaviruses that can cause rabies-like disease in humans.
• Bats themselves can develop rabies and shed the virus in their saliva.

Key Points about Monkeys and Bats:

• Both monkeys and bats can be infected with rabies and transmit it.
• They are not silent carriers — if infected, they eventually show symptoms and die.
• Monkey bites: The risk of rabies from such bites is considered significant in countries like India (hence post-exposure prophylaxis is recommended after a monkey bite), because it’s usually impossible to keep track of a biter monkey.
• Bat bites (even tiny, often unnoticed ones) are a recognized risk worldwide, and rabies prophylaxis is advised if there’s any contact, for the same reason as that with regard to monkeys.

✅ In short: Monkeys and bats can both suffer from rabies and transmit it — they’re not just passive carriers.

Rabies in Dogs and some myths that needs busting:

Do all dogs carry rabies and should all dogs be feared? No, dogs cannot be long-term or asymptomatic carriers of rabies. Unless they display symptoms of rabies, there is no need to fear about the disease. Precaution should of course be taken not to irritate or provoke dogs and invite a panic-bite. Such a bite could simply be painful and require first aid followed by antibiotic treatment. Rabies preventive vaccine should of course be taken if it’s not possible to keep the dog under observation.

Details of risk from dogs and hazard analysis of rabies:

• Rabies is a fatal viral disease that attacks the nervous system. Once clinical signs appear in a dog, the disease is virtually always fatal within days to weeks.
• Rabies can be either Furious Rabies in which case the affected dog goes on an unprovoked biting spree or Dumb Rabies in which case the dog cannot bite at all–its jaws get locked either in open position or closed position. Both cases are 100% fatal.
• Dogs do not naturally carry rabies without symptoms the way some animals can carry other infections.
• The rabies virus can be present in a dog’s saliva a few days before symptoms show (typically 3–5 days, occasionally up to 10 days). That’s why exposed dogs or dogs that have bitten some people should be quarantined for 10 days — if they remain healthy, they weren’t carrying rabies at the time of the bite.
• There are no “healthy carriers” of rabies in dogs, cats, or humans. The concept of chronic carrier state (like with typhoid in humans) does not apply to rabies.

👉 In summary: if a dog is infected with rabies and reaches the stage where it can transmit the virus, it will soon show signs and die. It cannot live long-term with the virus silently. So, it is unbelievable if people complain of a rabid dog biting several people through weeks. That dog couldn’t be rabid; it’s just under some human induced trauma and can be reconditioned in a shelter. Even without sheltering, there are plenty of mind calming medicines available today to reduce anxiety ridden biting tendency. RKD Pet Shop is committed to provide free consultancy and suggest therapeutic measures to ‘cure’ such dogs.

Was it wise to order all the Delhi strays to be imprisoned in pounds?

See Smt. Maneka Gandhi’s take on the August 11 2025 order of the Hon. Supreme Court to remove all stray dogs from the streets of Delhi NCR. Watch the video below:

See also the clip below in which Veterinarian Dr. Manoj of Super Pets Hospital speaks about the Supreme Court’s directive to move all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR into shelters within eight weeks—and highlights why this approach may be problematic from a health perspective.

See the real risk of diseases if all dogs were removed: Rats would take over if there is lot of filth lying around. See Kerala of 2019, that’s just 3 years after they killed two and a half lakh dogs and made the whole state dog-free in the last 6 months of 2016. Leptospirosis spread by rats appeared that very year and continued until the end of the next year. It was somehow controlled, but started again in 2019 as you see in the video below. But now it has started again. Look how Kerala is suffering! Search the news from Kerala in June 2025 about Leptospirosis repeat outbreak.

But what’s the connection with dogs? Who controls the rat population in a city? The municipality? No, the dogs and cats do. And do you know at what rate the rat population increases? A pair of dogs gives birth to 5 to 7 puppies in a year, out of which about 5 die. But a pair of rats? 35,000!!!

See also in the video below, disease and pestilence awaits mankind in a country where public hygiene is not of the highest order:

Kerala is presently reeling under the recent outbreak of Nipah Virus once again in 2025. It’s caused by Fruit Bats, whose numbers naturally go up in human habitations if predators like dogs are missing in the ecosystem.

After a genocide of dogs of Surat Bubonic Plague nearly emptied the city of Surat in 1994. Do we want to repeat such disasters?

May be not rats, but monkeys are expected to storm Delhi. Just watch the video below to see the Monkey Menace at Delhi some 6 years back in 2021.