Road accidents claimed the highest number of lives in India in the year 2013, while drowning and poisoning were some of the other major causes of unnatural deaths, a report has revealed. According to the data released by the Central Bureau of Health Investigation last week in a report titled “National Health Profile 2015”, a total of 166,506 people died in road accidents in 2013, which means 456 deaths every day. The total number of deaths due to all unnatural causes in 2013 was 377,758. This means about 44% of the total unnatural deaths in India are due to road accidents alone.
The report, giving accidental deaths’ statistics till 2013, showed that the number has seen a steady rise since 2005, when 118,265 people died on roads.
In 2013, the number of people who drowned was 30,041 and the number of people who lost their lives to poisoning were 29,249.
Air crash claimed the least number of people among unnatural causes of death. Six people died in air crash in 2005, two died in 2006, 19 in 2008, 12 in 2008, 23 in 2010, 18 in 2011 and 14 in 2012. There were no deaths in air crash in 2007.
An interesting data in the report is about people who died due to falls. A total of 9,132 people died due to falls in 2005 and 9,821 in 2006, numbers which again steadily climbed up to 12,803 in 2013.
In sharp contrast to this were deaths due to natural calamities which stood at 22,759.
The number of all accidental and unnatural deaths in India climbed from 255,883 in 2000 to 400,517 in 2013.
Suicides rose from 108,593 in 2000 to 134,799 in 2013.
As compared to men, the number of women dying accidental deaths was less. While 87,847 women died due to accidents in 2013, a total of 312,670 men died.
As for suicides, the number of women who took their own lives at 44.256 was less than men, which stood at 88,453 in 2013.
