Srinagar: incidents, with hospitals and civic bodies confirming record case loads and repeated clusters of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir
Official data placed recently before Parliament shows that 51,027dog bite cases were recorded in Jammu and Kashmir in 2024, while January 2025 alone saw 4,824 additional cases. Authorities noted that recent years have not logged human rabies deaths officially in the Union Territory, but the injury burden remains high and concentrated in urban pockets.
Clinical records from the Anti Rabies Clinic at SMHS Hospital in Srinagar indicate that 12,833 animal bite cases were registered in the twelve months from June 2024 to May 2025. Of these, 6,258 involved dogs and 6,095 involved cats, with the remainder attributed to other animals. Doctors said the numbers reflect sustained pressure on emergency and vaccination services and underscore the need for faster community level prevention.
Multiple child-focused incidents over the past months have renewed public concern. In Budgam’s Kandajan village in June, at least ten people including five children were injured when a pack of dogs attacked locals in lanes near the Chrarsharif area.
Srinagar has reported repeated severe attacks near the old city. In August a youth was critically injured in Nowpora Safakadal after being mauled by a pack.
Fatal events have also been reported this year. In January a five-year-old girl in Rajouri district succumbed after a pack of stray dogs attacked her in a village, officials said, deepening anxiety among families in the Pir Panjal belt. More recently, a five-year-old boy who had been battling for life following a dog bite in Shopian succumbed in September, adding to the year’s toll of severe paediatric cases.
A Traffic Police official acknowledged that dogs darting across roads contribute to accidents involving two-wheelers and small cars, though present accident ledgers in Jammu and Kashmir do not consistently record animal involvement by species. The official told the news agency Kashmir News Trust that many road traffic injuries tied to dogs are logged generically as loss of control events and therefore do not show up as an animal category in public dashboards. [KNT]
