Researchers say India’s Covid death toll could be 10 times official figure

Indian Home Guard personnel stand in an empty street of Sadar Bazar wholesale market which is partially closed for violating Covid-19 guidelines (Altaf Qadri/AP)

India’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official Covid-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the south Asian country.

Most experts believe India’s official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading.