NEW DELHI: Over 15 times more people die in human error-induced (unnatural) accidents than natural calamities almost every year. Among unnatural causes of accidents, drowning and accidental fire killed most people after road/rail accidents in 2014.Latest data from National Crime Records Bureau ( NCRB ) show that while 20,000 people died in natural calamities across the country in 2014, human error claimed 3,16,828 lives. While majority of these people (about 1.7 lakh) died in traffic accidents, drowning killed close to 30,000 people to become the second biggest killer. Accidental fire took the third spot claiming about 20,000 lives.For the first time, NCRB has segregated the ‘unnatural causes’ data into two categories --one which involves human error and ‘other causes’ involving incidents such as heart attack, death during pregnancy, animal attacks and hooch tragedies etc. In the ‘other’ category, NCRB has recorded 1.15 lakh deaths. Earlier these data were part of ‘unnatural causes’.Human error-induced accidental deaths have been increasing every year registering a growth of over 22% in the past 10 years. If the ‘others’ category—segregated this year—is added to this, the increase is of over 66% since 2004.The positive, however, is that deaths due to natural calamities have been contained to an average of 20,000 since 2004. In the past 10 years, deaths in this category increased by only 6%. Given that the population during this period increased by over 14%, this is an achievement that successive governments can be proud of. It is in a way also a reflection of improving capability of disaster mitigation measures and response.When adjusted to population growth, deaths due to natural calamities show a declining trend over the past 10 years. Opposite is true for human error-induced accidents .According to NCRB, the rate of accidental deaths (both natural and unnatural)—per 1 lakh population—has grown from 25 in 2004 to 36 in 2014. Given that the rate of deaths in natural causes has been declining, it shows badly on human error deaths—primarily traffic accidents, drowning and fire. This points to both lack of public awareness and government’s failure to make such places safe for the public.