Young Photographer's Death Has Some Worried Tarun Sehrawat was a 22-year-old photographer for Tehelka magazine who returned after an assignment deep in the heart of India's forests where Maoists battle security forces and indigenous groups often get caught in the crossfire. He had gone with a reporter, Tusha Mittal, into the forest-dense state of Chhattisgarh in central India in May. He had been unwell during the trip and felt uneasy upon his return but continued to work. The pictures that he took during the trip appeared in the magazine's May 12 issue. But his and Ms. Mittal's health worsened significantly, and they were diagnosed with cerebral malaria. On June 15, he succumbed to multiple complications. Ms. Mittal is making a slow recovery. The incident has shocked journalists in India. Many reporters from urban India are scarcely aware of the dangers and health hazards with which a vast number of Indians live. To that, add what Luis Manuel Botello, senior director of special projects at the International Center for Journalists in Washington, calls "a sense of mission which makes journalists feel nothing will happen to them." But microbes and insects don't spare journalists. "I worry that these sorts of incidents are more common than we realize," said Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. Media managers must take the responsibility for making sure that their field staff are prepared for all sorts of threatening situations -- everything from incoming fire to the threat of unexpected explosions to the dangerous exposure to viruses and microbes that can be just as deadly. In the magazine's account of what happened, Mr. Sehrawat and Ms. Mittal spent a week in the forest with a few bottles of drinking water, packets of cookies and mosquito repellent cream. They did not have anti-malaria or water-purifying tablets or mosquito nets. Writing in The Hindu, Aman Sethi, who reports from Chhattisgarh and knew the two, says they were not "scatterbrained tourists" or "foolhardy adventurers." But he added that "the thought that they could contract a fatal illness simply didn't occur to them, or, it seems, their editors." Tehelka's managing editor, Shoma Chaudhury, praised Mr. Sehrawat's exemplary courage and dedication. But in an e-mail interview, she said that the magazine did not provide guidance or training to the two, because "there is almost no real understanding or knowledge of these places." Yet Tehelka has reported extensively on the Maoist violence, and Mr. Sehrawat and Ms. Mittal have previously visited the area. "Despite the risks involved, to a certain extent, we have always considered ourselves immune from danger because as journalists, especially Delhi-based journalists, we have never felt that either state or Maoist forces would knowingly harm us," Ms. Chaudhury said. Of course, before each story we tell reporters to be careful and not to go to any length that would put their own life at risk. Before this trip, I told Tusha several times, 'Turn back immediately if you feel the slightest sense of danger.' They were out of range for several days and I was very worried, thinking they may have had an accident or something, but the irony of it all is that they did not turn back because they could not know the real danger was invisible to them. Ms. Mittal, who is convalescing, did not respond to e-mail messages and phone calls. Reporters have to face hazards, and journalists often get injured, and some die, while covering armed conflict and disasters. Exposure to diseases is different, but journalists' safety is an important consideration. Cerebral malaria is rampant in Chhattisgarh, and malaria is known as a major killer in rural India. Few Indian publications, including Tehelka, have reported on India's rural health crisis in detail. "As Indians, we don't perceive India as being a 'hazardous location,'" Ms. Chaudhury said. This was our world and we thought we knew it. Even getting fevers and stomach upsets is routine here. We will, of course, now tell our journalists to check on local health hazards before they go to any ground story and take necessary vaccinations and perhaps portable mosquito nets, but that really is a kind of armchair comfort, to ensure our own consciences as editors. Foreign correspondents working for international publications in similar situations often take many precautions. For example, one American reporter who has worked out tropical war zones with a photographer prepared for an assignment by taking a vast supply of water, a water purifying pump and tablets. They carried enough camping food to last a week, two tents, bug spray, and malaria prophylaxis. They also carried an extensive first aid kit, and the photographer had trained in advanced first aid. Compared to that, Mr. Sehrawat's and Ms. Mittal's preparation appears inadequate. Journalists who have observed its reporters as competitors say Tehelka tries to write "the definitive story" by spending more time in the field, and its reporters push the limit because they face immense pressure to come back with the story nobody else has. Tehelka has famously used unconventional means like concealed cameras to record evidence, with its reporters pretending to be businessmen in order to get politicians and others to speak openly about corruption. Its reporters have been threatened, arrested, bullied, beaten and sued; the magazine was nearly bankrupted. But it has defended its reporters fiercely. Is it worth it? Ms. Chaudhury is shaken by Mr. Sehrawat's death, but said: "Journalists take risks all the time. Ultimately, each situation demands decisions made on ground and calculated risks taken. The rest is just codes for comfort. Reporters should be aware of the risks they are taking, experts say. For example, the Committee to Protect Journalists advises reporters covering disease outbreaks to check with epidemiologists who understand the pathogen. "We place paramount importance on the health and safety of our foreign correspondents and work to make sure that they have adequate training and information to combat the risks they face," said Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of The Washington Post, who contracted typhoid in Pakistan in 1991 during a reporting assignment. Policies at The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal include giving reporters detailed guidance, emergency contact numbers and advice from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reporters being sent to hazardous areas are also provided hostile environment training, which may last two weeks. Such training, of course, has limits. Mr. Botello of the International Center for Journalists said that training programs often do not take into account how journalists work. For instance, some programs include lessons on fighting fire when what reporters need are lessons on how to stay safe while interviewing witnesses and victims. And in practice, many Western media organizations also fail to provide training or supplies to combat health risks like malaria. Also, no training can provide a shield against the unexpected. Among others, Daniel Pearl of The Wall Street Journal was killed by militants in Pakistan in 2002, and Joao Silva, a photographer for The New York Times, was severely injured in a mine explosion in 2010 in Afghanistan. Even if such training isn't perfect, it is increasingly becoming necessary. Mr. Sethi of The Hindu wrote that it isn't enough to simply instruct young journalists to "be careful." The business daily Mint provides its reporters flak jackets when they go to war zones, but its editor, R. Sukumar, said, "I'm afraid we don't really do anything at all when people travel within India. I think this tragedy is something all of us can and should learn from. It won't be easy. Training costs money, talented reporters get hired away by competitors, and managers are held accountable for the investments they make. But responsible publications cannot avoid that. India has appeared too familiar to too many Indian journalists for too long, but parts of the country live in another century. They play by different rules there, and there is no authority to turn to when things go wrong. Mr. Tripathi, who is based in London, is contributing editor at Mint and Caravan magazine, and has previously written for publications mentioned in the piece. He was a writer-at-large for Tehelka until 2009.