Arson crime incidents are reported annually and registered under cognizable offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Crime incidence is the number of First information Reports (FIR’s) registered. Through the years from 1995 to 2008, arson crimes have shown a mixed trend which decreases towards the late 2000’s as shown in Figure 1. The highest arson crimes were recorded in the year 1998 with 12913 offences being registered across the country. While the trend is exponentially directed, it can be seen that lowest arson offences were recorded in the year 2005 with 8451 offences.
In the next illustration seen as Figure 2, it can again be seen that there is a mixed trend in arson offences registered from 2009 to 2018 with sharp increases in the years 2012 and 2016 with 11836 and 11196 cases registered, respectively. Apart from these two years, the number of offences registered annually ranges between 8500 to 9800 cases, with the lowest number of cases being recorded in 2010 with 8508 incidents.
The break-up of arson offences registered yearly by the 29 states and 7 union territories of India has been compiled as seen in Table 1. The number of arson crimes are as per data recorded by NCRB based on data provided by the respective States/Union Territories. From the data, it can be observed that on an average, Maharashtra records the largest number of offences of arson as violent crimes under IPC. These figures can be due to large forest cover in the area and industrial economy of the state. Amongst the Union Territories, it can be observed that Delhi shows an increase in arson incidents every year and has the highest numbers amongst the others. An overall decreasing trend in arson crimes has been observed in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Punjab and Rajasthan. An overall mixed pattern over the years has been observed in states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. Overall increasing trend is noticed amongst Haryana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Table 1: Number of arson incidents reported as violent crimes state-wise and year-wise in India from 2009 to 2018.
Number of incidence of Arson Crimes (Sec. 435, 436 & 438 IPC)
|
STATE/UT
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
1039
|
925
|
1021
|
980
|
932
|
450
|
516
|
519
|
426
|
468
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
28
|
28
|
34
|
33
|
23
|
39
|
32
|
31
|
35
|
26
|
Assam
|
476
|
437
|
506
|
2830
|
793
|
743
|
826
|
664
|
571
|
615
|
Bihar
|
685
|
660
|
705
|
799
|
660
|
517
|
448
|
472
|
375
|
399
|
Chattisgarh
|
335
|
319
|
289
|
330
|
328
|
297
|
382
|
341
|
336
|
348
|
Goa
|
24
|
23
|
24
|
34
|
39
|
41
|
22
|
17
|
34
|
19
|
Gujarat
|
240
|
260
|
263
|
282
|
304
|
217
|
273
|
242
|
200
|
278
|
Haryana
|
153
|
221
|
166
|
191
|
189
|
203
|
234
|
1070
|
388
|
275
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
124
|
127
|
110
|
131
|
138
|
97
|
84
|
94
|
99
|
104
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
217
|
224
|
205
|
190
|
221
|
159
|
148
|
268
|
183
|
192
|
Jharkhand
|
203
|
185
|
138
|
136
|
185
|
94
|
100
|
143
|
92
|
167
|
Karnataka
|
293
|
286
|
231
|
416
|
332
|
484
|
464
|
471
|
409
|
338
|
Kerala
|
503
|
374
|
450
|
568
|
479
|
453
|
562
|
554
|
405
|
341
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
741
|
748
|
784
|
814
|
671
|
865
|
834
|
800
|
833
|
721
|
Maharashtra
|
1105
|
1229
|
1255
|
1246
|
1197
|
1180
|
1299
|
1338
|
1184
|
1312
|
Manipur
|
81
|
86
|
99
|
74
|
38
|
43
|
75
|
59
|
40
|
27
|
Meghalaya
|
54
|
52
|
34
|
61
|
127
|
38
|
34
|
29
|
71
|
59
|
Mizoram
|
24
|
15
|
19
|
12
|
27
|
22
|
17
|
27
|
18
|
14
|
Nagaland
|
4
|
1
|
2
|
7
|
9
|
7
|
7
|
3
|
6
|
5
|
Odisha
|
413
|
430
|
423
|
469
|
416
|
477
|
505
|
524
|
604
|
555
|
Punjab
|
101
|
101
|
83
|
74
|
65
|
63
|
80
|
78
|
86
|
80
|
Rajasthan
|
556
|
478
|
473
|
475
|
484
|
523
|
472
|
370
|
477
|
438
|
Sikkim
|
9
|
7
|
4
|
20
|
19
|
40
|
4
|
17
|
8
|
13
|
Tamil Nadu
|
580
|
636
|
706
|
726
|
645
|
675
|
677
|
513
|
402
|
434
|
Telangana*
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
482
|
436
|
451
|
430
|
512
|
Tripura
|
62
|
51
|
58
|
59
|
83
|
59
|
25
|
34
|
32
|
119
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
254
|
170
|
477
|
327
|
291
|
250
|
396
|
1325
|
604
|
726
|
Uttarakhand
|
17
|
17
|
17
|
17
|
17
|
8
|
9
|
9
|
16
|
10
|
West Bengal
|
344
|
331
|
413
|
396
|
495
|
544
|
503
|
523
|
640
|
511
|
Total (States)
|
8665
|
8421
|
8989
|
11697
|
9207
|
9070
|
9464
|
10986
|
9004
|
9106
|
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
|
12
|
12
|
6
|
4
|
2
|
5
|
4
|
9
|
4
|
4
|
Chandigarh
|
4
|
9
|
4
|
9
|
8
|
13
|
7
|
8
|
13
|
14
|
Dadra and Nagar Haveli
|
5
|
2
|
5
|
12
|
18
|
5
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
Daman and Diu
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
11
|
8
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
6
|
1
|
Delhi
|
34
|
52
|
42
|
79
|
97
|
190
|
224
|
183
|
148
|
126
|
Lakshadweep
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
0
|
Puducherry
|
11
|
10
|
10
|
21
|
16
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
Total (UT's)
|
71
|
87
|
70
|
139
|
150
|
219
|
246
|
210
|
182
|
146
|
Total number of incidents (States+UT’s)
|
8736
|
8508
|
9059
|
11836
|
9357
|
9289
|
9710
|
11196
|
9186
|
9252
|
*Note:Telangana was incorporated into a State and formed the 29th state in India on 2nd June 2014. Hence, data collection before 2014 reflects Telangana as part of the State of Andhra Pradesh.
The number of arson crimes booked under sections 435-438 IPC shows a mixed trend for the years from 2009 to 2018. The number of arson offences to the total number of IPC crimes in the country has been shown in Table 2. From this, it can be observed that arson offences make up 0.3 to 0.4 percent of total IPC crimes yearly. The rate of arson crime has been recorded in the range of 0.7 to 0.9 annually (NCRB). Crime rate is calculated as the Crime Incidence per one lakh population. The population estimation is obtained from the Registrar General of India done annually and based on the 2001 population census.
In India, there is a typical category system wherein there exist the general quota (GN), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), etc. General IPC offences are specially categorised for the SC and ST in the country to protect their interests. Hence, the trends of arson offences against these categories has also been analysed. The trends in arson offences against the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for the years from 2009 to 2018 show a mixed trendline with offences crossing the 200 mark for against Scheduled Caste in the years 2012, 2014 and 2015 as seen in Figure 3(a). While the number of offences against Scheduled Caste outnumber those against Scheduled Tribes, it can be seen that there was a sharp increase in the number of offences registered for years 2013 to 2015, followed by a drastic decline in numbers noticed from 2016 to 2018 as seen in Figure 3(b). From 2016 onward, it can be observed that there is a decrease in arson crimes against both the categories.
It can also be observed that a comparison of yearly trends in percentage of arson crimes to other IPC offences registered against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes is seen as a downward trend as indicated in Table 4. This indicates that while other types of crimes are increasing, the number of arson offences against these categories is decreasing, which is a good trend for the future.
From 2009 to 2015, it can be seen that the crime rate for arson offences ranges between 0.7 to 1 while the average arrest rate is 0.985 for the same duration as shown in Table 4. Arrest rate is calculated as number of persons arrested per lakh population. The number of arrests per case ranges between 1.1 to 1.6 arrests. The number of persons arrested shows a mixed trend over the period.