As per the health ministry of India, the number of reported deaths due to malaria is declining. If the ministry's statistcs were to be believed, from 1,055 deaths in the year 2008, approximately 506 (provisional) death cases have been reported in 2012. In between there were 1,144 deaths in 2009, 1,018 death cases in the year 2010, and about 754 deaths in the year 2011 across India.

"The intensified prevention and control efforts have resulted in the decline of reported malaria deaths in the last five years," stated the minister for health and family welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad on on April 30, 2013, in the Parliament.

However, there are global reports that prove the goverment claims wrong. While the government has said maintained that only 1,018 Indians died of malaria infection in 2010, A Lancet study published in 2011, on the other hand, said malaria actually killed an estimated 46,800 Indians in 2010.

According to the World Malaria Report 2011, over 70% of India's population face the risk of malaria infection. Around 31 crore people face the "highest risk" of getting infected. India has over 10 crore suspected malaria cases but only 15.9 lakh could be confirmed in 2010.

Infact, the media reports in past have suggested that the government was looking at revising its own figures which seemed to be 20 times lesser than the actual.A commintee appointed by the Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR) had reported that there the deaths are 40 times more than what figures in government's statistics.