This section tracks how often things go wrong in India, and whether it is getting better or worse. Each page gives a short trend summary, the numbers behind it, recent cases, up to 20 years of official press releases and a credited photo list. Figures come from national sources first: the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Reserve Bank of India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Forest Survey of India and the National Center for Seismology, with releases published through the Press Information Bureau. State governments, investigators and news reports fill the gaps. Many Indian series are compiled state by state and arrive a year or two late, so each page says which year a figure covers.
Where the trends point
- Getting worse: road deaths, total accidental deaths, the sums lost to bank and cyber fraud, and the share of deaths from chronic disease.
- Getting better: recorded fire deaths, tuberculosis and malaria.
- No clear trend: earthquakes, and forest fire hotspots, which are below their 2021 peak but still high.
MixedFire
Home fires, building fires and forest fires.
No clear riseEarthquakes
Around 400-600 quakes a year on Indian soil; 575 in 2024, mostly small.
Road deaths risingTransport accidents
Road, maritime and aviation.
Fewer cases, bigger sumsFinancial fraud
Banks reported ₹480bn of fraud in 2025-26 as case numbers fell to 10,114.
MixedDisease
Infectious and chronic disease.
Deaths risingInjuries
467,857 accidental deaths in 2024, up 5.3%; drowning alone took 40,044 lives.
How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. Many Indian statistics are compiled state by state and published a year or two late (NCRB’s accident report for 2024 came out in 2026), so we say which year each figure covers. Large numbers are written in international form, with lakh (100,000) and crore (10 million) in brackets where Indian sources use them. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.