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Imran Khan in Bhubaneswar
At least 27 tribals, including 13 children, have died in the drought-prone Kalahandi district of Orissa in the last ten days, due to malnutrition and consumption of wild roots and killer mango kernel, Kalahandi district administration sources said on Tuesday.
The deaths were reported from a dozen of villages, under the Nakrundi and Kerpai gram panchayats, in Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi.
The 13 children were between six months and five years in age.
The painful story of latest deaths in Kalahandi is more or less similar to Kashipur, where over 20 tribals died after consuming poisonous mango kernel.
District health department sources also said the non-existence of health facilities in these remote villages contributed to the deaths.
A medical officer on the condition of anonymity said about 12 deaths occurred due to diarrhoea, after the consumption of poisonous wild roots and mango kernel.
However, Kalahandi District Collector Hemant Sharma insisted that no such deaths had come to his notice.
But Jagdish Pradhan, Convenor of Sahvagi Vikash Abhiyan, an organisation of landless farmers in Kalahandi, claimed people are dying in several villages in Thuamul Rampur block due to malnutrition and diarrhoea.
Pradhan told rediff.com from Kalahandi that the infant mortality rate in this block of Orissa tops the country averages.
"Even today if someone visit these villages, he will come across children dying, and thousands suffering from diarrhoea, malaria and acute tuberculosis," Pradhan said.
He said excess rainfall also added to the woes of the tribals.
Unlike last two years, this time around, incessant rains had damaged large parts of maize and other crops in district, he said.
"People in this block are eating anything to fill their belly," Pradhan said.
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