Last Friday, when the Tamil Nadu government was busy preparing for a bandh, something happened in a remote village in Sivaganga district that went virtually unreported: two children died after having food at an Anganwadi. Something that should have made national headlines got blacked out by the political circus. Among the English papers -- and the Tamil papers I scanned last week -- only The New Indian Express carried the story (on Sunday, September 30), but buried it in an inside page. DNA followed up the story the next day (yes, buried).
Pandidharani and Kutturaja, both aged four years, died after having lunch at an anganwadi in Keelarangiyam village. Seven other children, who had diarrhoea, were hospitalised and later sent home. No post mortem was done. Nobody knows the cause of death. When I asked the district collector, he said lizard poisoning is suspected.
He also told me that no post mortem could be done because the relatives buried the bodies before the officials could reach the place. He also told me that samples collected from the seven other affected children cannot be tested in the government labs till they open after four holidays. He also told me that the results are expected on October 5. On October 6, he also told me that the results have not come.
I would not speculate on the cause of deaths, but I am sure there is an effort to hide it. With no big effort from the media to bring out the truth, the 'authorities' are breathing easy. Lizard poisoning is traditionally -- at least in Tamil Nadu -- considered lethal. And that is a myth. The day The New Indian Express carried the story, the country's best gastroenterologists and hepatobiliary surgeons were in a conference in Delhi.
I spoke to a couple of friends who were attending the conference. Dr R Surendran, head of the department of surgical gastroenterology, Government Stanley Hospital, Chennai tells me that medical science has proven beyond doubt that lizard, or its excreta, in food is not lethal. Another expert, Dr SM Chandramohan, head of the department at the Government Royapettah Hospital says a lizard in food often kills the reptile, but never the person who consumes the food.
Let us have some new explanations from the authorities. And the truth.
