According to official figures, India is already one of the worst hit countries by the corona pandemic - but according to a study, the number of deaths is in truth ten times higher than reported.
It is believed that 3.4 to 4.7 million people died as a result of illness with the virus, according to a study published on Tuesday by the US-based Center for Global Development.
"The true number of deaths is several million, not hundreds of thousands," explained the researchers.
The corona pandemic in India is "the worst human tragedy since independence".
For their study, the scientists evaluated data on excess mortality, comparing figures from pre-Corona times with those of the pandemic.
India has officially reported 414,000 corona deaths, the third most worldwide after the US and Brazil.
However, experts have questioned the numbers from New Delhi since the beginning of the pandemic.
For the most part, however, they did not assume that there was deliberate misinformation, but rather blamed the country's completely overwhelmed health system.
This collapsed again in many regions in April and May when the highly contagious Delta variant was rampant. This variant first appeared in India and has now spread worldwide.