Mumbai dogs bite man - more than 200 times a day
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More than 200 people were bitten by dogs every day last year in India's commercial capital Mumbai, up 50 per cent in four years due to a surging population of strays, a report said on Monday.
The number of bites recorded since 2001 is 650,000, and last year's average of 221 a day up was up by 50 per cent from 2007, according to data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), published in the Mumbai Mirror.
The newspaper said the number of stray dogs roaming the chaotic city has doubled to 150,000 since 2007.
But fewer deaths related to dog bites have been recorded, probably because sterilisation and vaccinations have improved. Six dog bite-related deaths were registered in 2011, down from 14 in 2010.
The figures were released in response to a Right to Information request.
Abodh Aras, chief executive of the Welfare of Stray Dogs trust, said he was unsure how the BMC's figures had been derived, but the increase in registered bites did not necessarily mean more dogs had started biting.
"It's very clear that awareness has gone up," he said, so people are more likely to go for anti-rabies medication and get their bites recorded.
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