Dark Tourism: Why Are People Rushing to Take Selfies at Murder Scenes?

A recent murder at Maharashtra's Lohagad Fort has caused a strange surge in visitors, shining a light on a phenomenon called 'dark tourism'. Let's look at why these trips to places linked with death and disaster have become a global industry, and the psychology behind it.

‘Where is the Siya spot?’

This is the first question tourists are now asking guides at the famous Lohagad Fort in Maharashtra. For years, history buffs, photographers, and trekkers came to this 2,000-year-old fort to soak in its Maratha heritage and enjoy the stunning hilltop views. But recently, there has been a 25% jump in the number of visitors. The reason behind this is quite shocking.

It all started after news broke that a young woman named Siya and her lover had allegedly pushed her fiancé, Ketan Agarwal, into a gorge from this very fort. People are now flocking here just to take pictures at the exact spot where the crime happened. This morbid curiosity got so out of hand that the police had to temporarily close off the area as part of their investigation.

There was a time when people would avoid a house or a road where a tragedy had occurred. But today, the opposite is happening. Why are people so drawn to these dark chapters of history?

'Dark Tourism' is a Lakh-Crore Industry

Researchers John Lennon and Malcolm Foley have a term for these trips to places associated with death, disaster, and suffering: 'Dark Tourism'. While it might seem like a new internet trend, it has a long history. Back in the 1860s, during the American Civil War, people would sit on nearby hills, have a meal, and watch the battles unfold from a safe distance.

Today, this curiosity has turned into a massive global industry. There are even special websites that help tourists find such places. The global dark tourism market is estimated to be worth $32.8 billion (about ₹3.16 lakh crore) by 2025. It's expected to grow to $40 billion (around ₹4 lakh crore) by the early 2030s.

If you look at the numbers worldwide, many of the most visited tourist spots have a history of great tragedy. In 2024 alone, over 4 million visitors went to Italy's Pompeii Archaeological Park to see the city destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The authorities had to cap the number of visitors to 20,000 per day. In the US, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum has seen more than 14 million visitors. Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where the world's first atomic bomb was dropped, received 2 million people paying their respects. Meanwhile, the former concentration camp at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Poland had 1.83 million visitors, and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in the US saw about 1.6 million visitors.

Why do we want to see places of tragedy?

You might think that people visit these places out of a cruel fascination with death. But psychologists say the real reason is a complex mix of curiosity, a search for emotional comfort, and our own survival instincts. A 2025 study by the University of Tennessee found that humans have a strong awareness of their own mortality. Psychologists call this 'Terror Management Theory'. By visiting places of death from a safe environment, we try to understand our own fragile existence on this planet. Confronting death often helps people appreciate the value of being alive.

Besides this, a 2016 study suggests that a direct interest in death is actually the least common reason for such visits. The study found that most people make these trips to learn about history, pay respect to the victims, or simply to see for themselves if such horrific events really happened.