In 2017, we explored the rise of the "kill-fie" — a portmanteau coined for selfies that put people at risk of severe injury and death — and efforts to quash the trend.
Our story reported that one country was a hotbed of risky selfies. Data scientists at Cornell University conducted extensive searches of online news accounts of death by selfie. Their report, "Me, Myself and My Killfie", tallied 127 selfie deaths from 2014 through 2016. More than half were in India.
Now it's not a definitive study. The news media doesn't report on every risky selfie. And India is home to the world's biggest population.
Still, India took the report quite seriously. Police in the western Indian city of Mumbai identified 16 accident-prone zones where most of the country's selfie-related deaths were recorded — for example, near beaches and forts and along the popular Marine Drive which offers scenic views of the Arabian sea. Then they launched a public awareness campaign on television and posted warnings on X. Computer scientists at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, (IIIT-D) launched a free app called Saftie in 2017, warning selfie takers to steer clear of high risk areas.
Have these warnings had an impact? Or do risky selfies remain a problem in India and elsewhere? We asked journalist Kamala Thiagarajan, who did the original story, to follow up.
He ran away as fast as he could. It was almost too late.
In a now-viral video from August 10, an elephant chases and nearly tramples a tourist on the highways of Bandipur National Park, known for its nature walks, birdwatching and wildlife safaris, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Authorities say that the man, a tourist from the neighboring state of Kerala, was lucky to survive — and that the elephant was likely provoked because the tourist had climbed out of his safari vehicle and approached the animal to take a selfie.
It wasn't an isolated incident. That same month, an elephant charged at two men from Chhattisgarh, a landlocked state in northern India, when they attempted to pose with it for a selfie. They managed to run to safety.
And in 2025, India remains at the top of the global list for dangerous selfies, according to two new surveys.
Last week, the Barber Law Firm released findings from its analysis of google news accounts of selfies that results in injury or death, beginning in March 2014 through May 2025.
India's 271 cases made up 42% of the total. The U.S. ranked second with 45 cases, followed by Russia with 19.
A selfie database covering 2014 to 2023, from the insurance comparison website Swiftest. came to the same conclusion. It cites 190 deaths in India — nearly half of all the deaths it compiled — and 55 injuries.
Where does danger lurk and who gets hurt?
While stories of animal attacks make headlines, they're not the number one selfie threat.
According to the surveys, the most common danger zones are heights — waterfalls, rooftops, bridges and cliffs that are especially tempting backdrops for dramatic selfies.
And the main instigators are men. A joint study by Carnegie Mellon University and the Indraprastha Institute of Technology in New Delhi found that roughly three out of four selfie-related deaths involved men posing dangerously.
One unexpected finding, say selfie researchers, is that the victims aren't just the person taking the selfie.
"One of the strange insights I found was that in places like India, a person trying to take a selfie will often fall into a river or body of water, and other people will then jump in the water to try and save the person and also lose their lives. It was something that was very troubling to learn — that one person's mistake could lead to a wider tragedy," says Matthew H. Nash, lead researcher at Swiftest.
What's the motive?
Sometimes people are looking for internet fame. And maybe fortune.
Psychologists say the shift to "killfies" happens when the pursuit of online validation overrides judgment. "When people receive positive feedback on their selfies, that creates the desire to take more of them. Use soon becomes abuse," says Selvikumari Ramasubramanian, a clinical psychologist at MS Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, a non-profit offering mental health services in Madurai.
In the Swiftest's 2023 survey of 1,233 Instagram users, one in 10 admitted they would risk their safety for more followers.
Some of these high-risk selfie takers end up selling images to various social media platforms.
And hashtags like #dangerousselfie and #extremeselfie encourage copycat behavior.
An emerging danger
In India, authorities are now worried about another potential danger spot: massive gatherings.
Solomon Nesakumar, additional commissioner of police in Kolkata, told NPR that crowd control is always difficult and becomes even more challenging when people stop to take selfies or their close cousin, video reels to post on Instagram and other platforms.
"We need to keep the crowd moving to avoid accidents, but selfie takers don't understand this. They put themselves and others at risk of being trampled — or worse, triggering a stampede," he says.
At gatherings like the Mahakumbh in the northern Indian city of Pragyaraj this January, where millions of Hindu pilgrims attend what's considered the world's largest religious festival, selfies were banned.
To prevent a potential tragedy at such a big event, he says, "police make frequent announcements to inform people of the ban and even temporarily confiscate phones from offenders."
The fear of losing a phone, even for a short period of time, might turn out to be an effective deterrent for risky selfies.
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t
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