As many as 405 cases of suicides have been reported in the armed forces since 2004, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Defence Minister A K Antony said the highest incidence of suicides, 328 cases, had been reported from the Army, mostly from personnel engaged in counter insurgency operations. He said this was followed by 64 cases in the Air Force and 13 in the Navy and the Coast Guard.

In a written reply, Antony said about 120 suicide cases were reported in the Army last year. In 2005, the figure was 92, including 15 attempted suicides, and in 2004 it was 100. He said this year, 16 cases had been reported till March five.

In the IAF, the minister said, 24 cases were reported in 2006, 23 in 2005 and 13 in 2004. In the first three months this year, he said only four cases had been reported.

Navy had five suicide cases each in 2004 and 2005, which dropped to just two cases last year and in the current year only one case had come to light, the minister said.

However, Antony ruled out engaging non-governmental organisations for stress management, saying that the forces have 'enough infrastructure and expertise' to handle the problem.

Listing out some new measures taken to combat stress, the minister said rotation of units, even in insurgency-hit states, had been ordered to minimise stress and the leave policy had been liberalised by splitting casual and annual leave.

Antony also said that he had written to state chief ministers requesting them to be more responsive to the problems of serving soldiers and their families. He said 50 junior commissioned officers from Army Medical Corp had been trained as counsellors in Northern and Eastern command.