Accidents, nature major causes of soldier deaths

PUNE: Besides terrorist attacks, non-enemy action injuries are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in the Indian armed forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the North East.
While 8.16 deaths per thousand (62.5 per cent) were attributed to terrorist-induced injuries and 0.63 per thousand (4.8 per cent) to injuries induced by enemy between 1999 and 2006, accidental deaths accounted for 3.02 per thousand (23.1 per cent) and environmental deaths for 1.14 per thousand (8.7 per cent) among army personnel.
Such incidents are responsible for injuries and deaths among 28.08 per year per 1,000 troops during the period.
An Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) study by Brigadier K.V.S. Rana, Colonel M.M. Arora and Lieutenant Colonel J.K. Bhatia, found that road accidents were the major killers accounting for 48.2 per cent followed by accidental discharge of weapon at 35.5 per cent.