Every landmass is famous for at least one animal it’s worth being scared of. Europe has wolves, North America has grizzly bears, South America has anaconda snakes, Africa has lions, the Arctic has polar bears and Australia has venomous spiders.
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Asia is probably most famous for its tigers, but there are many more species on the continent that are quite capable of making short work of a human. India specifically is home to deadly snakes, scorpions, lions, tigers, leopards, bears, wolves and crocodiles, all packed into a country populated by more people (over a billion) than any other.
What's the most dangerous animal in India?
India’s 3,000-or-so tigers kill about 100 people per year. Historically, the figure has been much higher – more like 3,000 around the turn of the 20th century, when there were many more tigers.
Leopards are more widespread and numerous than tigers but are responsible for fewer fatalities. India is also home to a single population of about 670 lions in Gir National Park in the north-west of the country, but they rarely attack humans.
Sloth bears, which are largely insectivorous, are responsible for as many attacks on people as all the big cats combined, though only about 10 per cent of these are fatal (compared to about 65 per cent for big cats). Meanwhile, elephants kill about 400 per year, according to India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests – more than all other mammals combined.
That figure is in turn dwarfed by the number of deaths caused by mosquitoes (the world's deadliest insect) transmitting malaria. Though not the scourge they are in some other parts of the tropics, they still kill more than 5,000 people a year. Rabies, which is transmitted almost entirely by the bites of dogs, kills even more. There are perhaps 20 million feral dogs in India, which inflict about seven million bites annually on humans, leading to something like 20,000 deaths.
Then there are the various venomous animals. Though many species of Indian spider can deliver a painful bite, few fatalities are recorded. Scorpions pose a greater threat. The Indian red scorpion is amongst the most deadly and children are especially vulnerable to its venom. Numbers are hard to come by, but with 2,600 recorded fatalities annually due to scorpion stings worldwide, they are unlikely to be a major source of mortality.
Indian snakes, however, kill 58,000 people annually. One in 250 Indians suffers a snake-inflicted death before the age of 70. The highest toll (43 per cent of fatal bites, or 25,000) is taken by Russell’s viper, which can be common around rural villages.
It’s worth remembering, though, that the greatest threat to human life in India, just like everywhere else in the world, comes from other humans. With about 40,000 recorded murders each year, and another 100,000 deaths in road accidents, perhaps we have a clear winner.
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