The rapid increase of taking selfies in some of the world’s most beautiful, and dangerous, destinations has triggered plenty of legal framework meant to reduce risk-taking, which has manifested in a rash of fatalities all over the world.
India, which has the highest number of cases and fatalities while clicking selfie, followed by Russia, the United States, and Pakistan, has made the most recent intervention by the authorities to prevent the unintentional fatalities due to selfie. Selfie-related deaths are most commonly caused by drowning, transportation, and falls.
Clicking of selfies has been made a criminal offense in Gujarat’s Dang district in a bid to check accidents due to such activities, officials said on Tuesday. Dang district of South Gujarat is a popular tourist spot, especially during the season of monsoon, because of its beautiful hill station Saputara and waterfalls.
“If people are caught taking selfies in Dang, action could be taken against them under criminal offence provisions” said district’s resident additional collector T. D. Damor to PTI. The official said “these kind of restrictions were in place in Dang since the last two-three years and…” and now they have been extended after a fresh notification issued earlier this month.
“The aim behind the decision is to stop accidents which claimed the lives of some people in the past and also injured many,” Damor added.
“People, especially youngsters, in their attempt to click a good selfie, can go to any extent and harm themselves…” he noted. In many of the cases, people falls into the gorge or being swept away in water current while taking selfies and the administration of Dang district wanted to stop this so no more youngster will loose his/her life.
The official added further that “the district administrations has put up hoardings and billboards at various tourist places to warn the people who comes to these danger places where people can loose their lives while taking selfies.” A case in Saputara was reported in July 2018, where a man died after falling into a gorge warning visitors of the dangers of taking selfies.
According to sources, in August 2018, a person who was perished while taking a picture near the Gira waterfalls. As per a study published by the US National Library of Medicine, around 259 people died while shooting their selfies between a period of 6 years, i.e., between 2011 and 2017, with about half of them belongs from India. The mean age was 22 years. About 72.5 per cent of the total number of deaths occurred in males and 27.5 per cent in females,” the institution stated in their study uploaded online.
“We also classified reasons for deaths due to selfie as risky behaviour or non-risky behaviour…” the institution said. The risky behaviour can cause more fatalities and the incidents makes clicking selfies a non-risky behaviour. The institution also explained that more than 50 per cent of the total reported deaths are from India.
