‘28 Indians are killed by animals every day’

MUMBAI: Wild animals, snakes, killer cattle and dogs killed 4,192 people in India between April and August, says data from the ministry of health and family welfare. This is an average of 28 every day.

Madhya Pradesh had the most deaths (792), followed by West Bengal (576) and Maharastra (439). In Maharashtra, 27 of the deaths were in urban areas. Between April 2016 and March 2017, the number of deaths nationally was 7,556 and Maharashtra accounted for 651 of those. Amravati district had most cases (47). Mumbai and Pune fol- lowed with 26 cases each.

In Mumbai, there have been two snakebite deaths this year, one of a 20-year old woman in July, and the other of a six-year old boy in October. In July, a twoyear-old was killed by a leopard.

“We collated data from public and private hospitals across the country. However, the data does not entail details of which animals were responsible for the deaths,” said a government official from the ministry of health and family welfare. “According to our baseline studies, we estimate that 80% cases between 2015 and 2017 are due to dog bites, 5% cases from snake bites, 3% from monkeys, remaining from wild animals such as jackals, leopards, wild boars, tigers, elephants etc., and a small percentage of cases of rat bites, bull, cow or other cattle attack incidents.”

Experts were suspicious about the data, saying it was not clear whether the deaths attributed to dogs were due to rabies.

“These are very serious matters concerning human lives and there needs to be a detailed scientific analysis, especially in rural areas, because municipal or public hospitals are submitting data based on the dosage of medication. In some cases, one person is given five doses and it is accounted as five dog attacks when it is actually one,” said Rahul Sehgal, director, Asia and Africa, Humane Society International, an organisation that works on animal protection.

Members of Maharashtra State Animal Welfare Board said since most deaths were due to dog bites, the health ministry should make rabies a reportable disease.

“Rabies and snake bite deaths are the most preventable deaths and can be mitigated through basic anti-rabies programme. The central government needs to make rabies a notifiable disease and come out with specific data rather than accumulating individual deaths,” said NG Jayasimha, a board member.

The World Health Organization had reported in 2000 that an estimated 20,000 people die annually in India due to rabies. However, recent central government reports have indicated that the deaths have reduced to 3,500.

We estimate 80% cases between 2015 and 2017 are due to dog bites, 5% cases from snake bites, 3% from monkeys, and remaining from the wild animals.

A HEALTH MINISTRY OFFICIAL