Death on the Tracks

In the past three months alone, 52 bodies have been recovered from the railway tracks in Bengaluru—two of them unidentified, found near Chikkabanavara and Soladevanahalli, areas on the city’s expanding periphery. According to data from the Government Railway Police (GRP), this year’s death toll has already crossed 195, overtaking the number of fatalities reported in all of 2024, a grim mix of accidents, suicides, and undetermined deaths.

Bengaluru is not new to railway fatalities. But the scale, frequency, and anonymity of these deaths have turned the city’s tracks into corridors of quiet catastrophe. Between 2020 and 2022, 1,074 unidentified bodies were cremated after being found along the tracks in the state—unclaimed, unrecorded by families, and unremembered by the system.

The city’s 78 railway stations and 33 track segments have been flagged as “black spots” by the Railway Police—areas where deaths are most frequent. These black spots, mapped and monitored, often lie near slums, migrant colonies, or industrial zones where safe access across tracks is limited or non-existent. The lack of foot overbridges, broken fencing, and poor lighting means residents frequently take shortcuts across the rails—many of them unaware of approaching trains until it is too late.

On February 19, three migrant workers were killed by a speeding train while recording Instagram reels near the tracks in Doddaballapura, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. According to the Devanahalli Railway Police, the victims were carpenters from Uttar Pradesh, returning home from work when they paused near the railway line to film videos. Distracted and unaware of the approaching train, they were hit and died on the spot.

Earlier this month, at least three more people were killed in separate train accidents across the city. One victim, a 20-year-old woman, was struck near Baiyappanahalli railway station. Another died between Nayandahalli and Jnanabharathi, on a stretch already marked as a black spot by the GRP.

“We respond almost daily to unnatural deaths along the railway line,” said Soumyalatha S.K., Superintendent of Police (Railways), Bengaluru. “Many of the deceased have no identification documents. They are often migrants, labourers, or the urban homeless. Sometimes, even their faces are unrecognisable.”

These unnamed dead are symptomatic of a larger urban crisis. Bengaluru, a city of over 14 million, has grown at a pace that its infrastructure cannot keep up with. Migrant workers power its construction boom, service its tech campuses, and live in shanties near train yards and goods sheds. When they die—whether by accident or suicide—they often vanish into bureaucratic anonymity.

A senior GRP officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the current figures may still be an undercount. “We believe many incidents go unreported because by the time we arrive, locals may have shifted the body. And unless a witness files a report, there is no formal record.”

Some cases are clearly criminal. In March 2025, the Bengaluru GRP arrested a couple and their friend for the premeditated murder of a 24-year-old man, whose body they left on the tracks to stage a suicide. In another case earlier this year, two men were arrested for pushing an unidentified passenger off a moving train during a drunken altercation.

The overwhelming majority of deaths, officials insist, are not crimes. In Mumbai, where the problem is even more acute, the Railway Police report over 2,000 track deaths every year, and a significant proportion are listed as “trespassing”—a category that includes pedestrians attempting to cross and trackside workers.

In recent months, the Bengaluru GRP has begun installing surveillance cameras at accident-prone zones. Some fencing has been reinforced, officials claim. Physical infrastructure alone is not the issue, however—it is the socio-economic ecosystem around the tracks. You cannot solve the problem without addressing poverty, housing, and safe mobility.

Mental health experts have also raised red flags. Of the 195 deaths reported this year in Bengaluru, several are suspected suicides. “Railways are often the chosen site because they offer certainty,” said Aarthi K, a clinical psychologist who works with migrant workers in Dabaspete, on the periphery of the city. “We need more psychiatric outreach programs in urban settlements, especially among isolated and migrant populations.”

From a legal standpoint, the treatment of unidentified bodies raises questions. According to protocol, the GRP must conduct a post-mortem, preserve DNA samples where possible, and attempt to trace relatives. But overburdened morgues and delays in identification mean many bodies are cremated within 72 hours. A majority of these deaths are not even investigated beyond a basic inquest, especially when no family member steps forward. The person becomes a file.

BangaloredeathsIndian RailwaysNews Briefrailway trackWeb Exclusive