Telangana tops organ donation with 205 cadaver donors in a year

Telangana has emerged as a national leader in organ donation, recording 205 deceased donors in one year under the Jeevandan programme. The State’s donation rate far exceeds the national average, earning it the ‘Best State’ award.

Hyderabad: Telangana continues to remain a leader in organ donation and transplantation, achieving a milestone of 205 deceased organ donors in the last one year, marking a massive leap from 41 donors in 2013, through the State-run Jeevandan organ donation programme.

According to official data released by the Jeevandan Cadaver Transplantation Programme, the 205 donations in 2025 resulted in the retrieval and successful utilisation of 758 organs and tissues.

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With an organ donation rate of over 5 donors per million population (pmp), far exceeding the national average of 0.8 pmp, the Telangana State recently received ‘Best State’ award in the country for organ donation from Union Health Ministry.

Recently, Telangana State adopted the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), which strives to streamline brain-death declarations by authorising anesthesiologists and physicians to certify death, thereby reducing critical delays. The new law also introduces stringent penalties for illegal organ trade, with fines up to Rs 1 crore and 10 years of imprisonment.

While Telangana is a top performing state, the fact also remains that corporate hospitals are literally driving the entire organ transplantation. There were 205 organ donors in Telangana in 2025, out of which 197 organ donations (96.10 per cent) were carried out at private hospitals, while 8 organ donations (3.9 per cent), were carried out in government hospitals.

Of the 205 cadaver brain dead organ donations, a total of 160 donors were male, while the rest of the 45 were female organ donors. Close to 45.3 per cent of the organ donations are due to trauma (accidents), while the rest of the organ donations were non-trauma related.

The breakdown of transplants includes:

Kidneys: 291

Livers: 186

Lungs: 95

Hearts: 32

Corneas: 154