Today for instance I let three buses go and took the fourth one because the others were just too crowded and I wanted to avoid that. I am even wary of taking a crowded metro train.'

A Pune schoolgirl became India's eighth H1N1 fatality when she succumbed to the virus early Tuesday, according to a health official.

The victim, Shruti Gavde, 13, died in the Sassoon Hospital, barely hours after a pharmacist Sanjay Tilekar died there Monday night, an official from the State Swine Flu Control Room said. This is the sixth swine flu death in Maharashtra.

Pune tops the list of casualties with five deaths so far followed by one death each in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

So far 864 people in India have been infected with the virus. Of these, 523 have been discharged from hospital and 341 are under treatment, union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.