More Indian paramilitary men dying of mental illness rather than operations

More personnel of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) are dying of mental illness and lifestyle diseases than in the line of duty.

BSF Director General  KK Sharma shared details of a study conducted among the force while speaking at a workshop on Tuesday.

“Recent studies within the force have indicated that number of deaths of force personnel was more due to illness (both physical and mental) than being operational casualties. Our studies through the medical directorate of the BSF have listed out many indicators of lifestyle diseases as well,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted him as saying.

The news agency said data it had collected revealed that only 25 of total 774 deaths of BSF officials between January 2015 and September 2016 were battle casualties.

According to the PTI the dataI had showed only 25 BSF men were killed in action and 316 fell victim to a variety of diseases and illnesses.

In order to prevent the deaths, the DG BSF said,  his force has taken some remedial measures to control lifestyle diseases by including yoga in the daily routine of paramilitary troops .