‘28 people fall prey to animals every day across country’

BETWEEN APRIL 2016 AND MARCH 2017, THE NUMBER OF DEATHS OWING TO ANIMAL ATTACKS ACROSS THE COUNTRY WAS 7,556

MUMBAI:Dogs, snakes, cattle and wild animals killed 4,192 people in India between April and August this year, reveals data from the ministry of health and family welfare. This means an average of 28 people died every day across the country in five months.

While Madhya Pradesh had the most deaths (792), West Bengal and Maharastra were second and third with 576 and 439 deaths. In Maharashtra, 27 of the deaths were in urban areas. Between April 2016 and March 2017, the number of deaths owing to animal attacks across the country was 7,556, and Maharashtra accounted for 651 of these deaths. In Maharashtra, Amravati district had the maximum cases (47) followed by Mumbai and Pune, which had 26 deaths each.

In Mumbai, this year, there have been two snake bite deaths – one in July, when a 20-year-old woman died after being bitten while she was asleep and the second in October, when a six-year old boy living in Aarey Milk Colony died after being bitten while playing with friends. Also, on July 22, a two-year-old from Aarey was killed by a leopard.

“We collated data from public and private hospitals across the country. But the data does not have details of which animals were responsible for the deaths,” said an official from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

“According to our baseline studies, we estimate that 80% cases between 2015 and 2017 are owing to dog bites, 5% of snake bites, 3% of monkey attacks, remaining from wild animals such as jackals, leopards, wild boars, tigers, elephants, etc., and a small percentage of cases are of rat bites, bull, cow or other cattle attack incidents.”

Experts were suspicious about the data, saying that 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 whereas it is actually one. It is also not clear whether it is a stray or a pet dog,” said Rahul Seghal, director, Asia and Africa, Humane Society International, an international organisation that works for animal protection.