Is India safe to travel?

Visitors heading for restricted or protected zones need special permits, which you should ask about when you apply for your visa. Access to the Andaman and Nicobar islands is governed by a specific rule: a permit must be obtained beforehand and some areas are closed altogether. For the states north-east of Sikkim — Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram — check the current permit rules state by state, since permits stopped being required for Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland on 1 January 2011, and entering the tribal localities of Odisha needs a permit from local authorities.

Tensions along the de facto India–Pakistan border are frequent and produce periodic exchanges of fire, so travel to the border areas is advised against, both in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir (Ladakh excepted) and in Punjab. Although the curfew across the Kashmir Valley was lifted in November 2019, phone and internet service is still limited, ordinary local prepaid SIMs do not work in Kashmir (only postpaid ones do) and access and movement remain barred in some areas; the ministry advises against travel in the Valley, Srinagar and the resorts of Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg included. The road route from Srinagar to Ladakh is also advised against.

Travel is advised against in the areas affected by the Naxalite insurgency, in particular the rural areas of West Bengal (West Midnapore district), Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, where those groups concentrate in the Kandhamal, Ganjam, Bargah and Malkangiri districts — two Italian tourists were kidnapped there by an armed Naxalite group in 2012. Trips to Manipur are advised against after tribal clashes, with a curfew imposed by the authorities, and in Nagaland general strikes (bandh) can be called at short notice with possible clashes with police; in Darjeeling, Gorkha protests and strikes regularly block roads and railways and disrupt phone and internet. In Bihar common crime is high enough that the ministry says not to move around other than in a group, especially after sunset and away from built-up areas.

Cases of sexual violence are increasing, including against foreign women. Keep maximum vigilance, particularly on public transport, on beaches and in isolated places, and avoid travelling alone.

The monsoon runs from May to September across the whole country and its rain, at times violent, regularly kills people, snarls traffic even in the big cities — Mumbai above all — and causes floods and landslides, mostly in rural areas, where villages and entire regions are left with no land access, sometimes for days. Check the weather and road situation before moving. New Delhi also has extremely high air pollution that periodically becomes an emergency in winter, with smog closing schools and offices and suspending or diverting flights.

Individual unguided trekking in the Himalayan areas is strongly advised against, and in the mountains of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh the risks to walkers are potentially fatal. Local police advise using only authorised agencies, telling the nearest police station your itinerary before heading into remote areas, hiring only authorised guides and porters, sticking to the routes marked by the tourism department, stopping overnight only at recommended campsites and moving in a group. There is no organised rescue service for mountaineering or trekking in India: the only help at altitude is military helicopters, which need a written request through an embassy, a clearance from the foreign ministry, good weather, office hours and an upfront commitment to cover all costs.