How many people die of malaria in the country every year? The government is not sure and has, therefore, formed a 16-member expert group under the chairmanship of Dr Padam Singh, former additional director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research, to pinpoint the country's exact malaria deaths.

According to figures from the country's National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), India records around 1,000 deaths every year due to malaria. The World Health Organisation, on the other hand, says that 15,000 people die of malaria annually in India.

Now, a recent paper published in the British medical journal `Lancet' said that malaria kills 13 times more Indians every year than estimated so far by WHO. This means that two lakh people under the age of 70 die of malaria every year. Of these, 90% of the deaths are in rural areas and 86% do not occur in any healthcare facility, according to the `Lancet' study.