TL;DR Animal-related deaths, especially from venomous bites, remain a major and rising cause of accidental mortality in India, with snakebites accounting for the overwhelming majority and a few states driving most of the burden.

Context

Fatalities arising from encounters with animals, reptiles, and insects remain a significant public safety concern in India, particularly in regions where human settlements overlap with wildlife and exposure to venomous species is common. These incidents occur in different forms, ranging from direct physical attacks to venomous bites and stings, and continue to account for a notable share of accidental deaths each year. Data on these incidents is available in the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report, which records them under specific categories which help us track deaths caused by animal attacks as well as poisonings resulting from animal/reptile/insect, and snake bites, offering a better picture of the scale and nature of the risk.

Who compiles this data?
The data comes from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) report, compiled annually using police reports from across states and districts.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to accidental deaths in India?

Clean, structured, and ready-to-use detailed data on accidental deaths are available on Dataful. The collection provides year-, state-, city-, age-, and gender-wise data on accidental deaths across causes including place of occurrence, number of cases, injuries, deaths, and rates.

Key Insights

• Since 2001, a total of 24,277 people died in direct animal attacks, while 1,99,712 lost their lives to animal, reptile, or insect bites. This translates to a national average of roughly 3 deaths per day from animal attacks and 24 deaths per day from venomous bites and poisonings. Across both categories, men account for a significantly higher share of deaths, consistently contributing more than 70% of total fatalities.

• Both categories show a clear upward trend over the decade. Notably, recent years mark the peak, with fatalities from animal attacks (1,742 deaths) and venomous bites (11,288 deaths) reaching their highest recorded levels in 2023.

• Since 2014, deaths due to poisoning from animal/reptile/insect bites and snake bites have been recorded separately. Out of the 1.01 lakh poisoning deaths from bites, about 91% were due to snake bites.

• Deaths due to animal attacks are concentrated in a few states. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh consistently report higher numbers compared to others, while no deaths have been reported in most northeastern states.

• Many states show a noticeable rise in recent years. This includes Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, among others. Some states have also reported a sharp year to year fluctuations rather than steady trends. For instance, Tamil Nadu reported 300+ deaths in 2011 alone, while it was below 150 in other years.

• Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest number of fatalities by a huge margin every single year. The number was never below 2000 deaths (except in 2014) and peaked at 2,915 in 2021. This single state accounts for a significant share of the national total.

• Uttar Pradesh also reported a sharp rise, multiplying its fatalities roughly sixfold since 2011. Similarly, both Odisha and Rajasthan saw their death tolls more than double over this timeframe. On the other hand, Maharashtra and Assam recorded a consistent decline in deaths.

• While snakebites cause over 90% of poisoning deaths in high-burden states like Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat stand out for recording a significantly higher number of fatalities from other venomous animals and insects, accounting for about 30% deaths.

Why does it matter?

These deaths are largely preventable yet continue to claim thousands of lives every year, particularly in rural and high-exposure regions. The dominance of snakebite-related fatalities points to gaps in timely medical access, awareness, and anti-venom availability. Identifying high-burden states and trends can help target public health interventions, improve emergency response systems, and reduce avoidable deaths.

Key Numbers

• 2.24 lakh+ deaths since 2001
  24,277 (animal attacks) + 1,99,712 (bites/poisoning)

• Daily toll
  ~3 deaths/day (animal attacks) | ~24 deaths/day (bites/poisoning)

• 2023 peak in Deaths
  1,742 (animal attacks) | 11,288 (bites/poisoning)

• Snakebite dominance
  ~91% of poisoning deaths due to bites are from snakebites

• Gender gap
  Men account for ~70–75% of deaths across both categories