KORAPUT: Three members of a family died while a six-year-old boy is fighting for life after eating a dish prepared with dried mango kernel at Maina Padar villge in Nabarangpur district on Tuesday. The victims are all members of the Santa family.Among the dead are 30-year-old Sudhamani, Namita (15) and Pramila (28). While Sudhamani is the wife of Arjun Santa (35), Namita is his sister and Pramila is the wife of Arjun's brother, Abhinash (32). Arjun's child, Prakash (see image), is admitted to SLN Medical College and Hospital, Koraput , in critical condition.According to Arjun, the family members prepared a dish by making a paste of dried mango kernels and ate it around 10am on Monday. Since he and his brother were out, they did not eat it. Around 2 in the night, the family members complained of stomach ache, vomiting and loose motion. "Before we could do anything, my sister succumbed at home," Arjun said. The brothers took the family members to a hospital in Jharigaon from where they were referred to the district headquarters hospital at Nabarangpur. But Sudhamani died on the way to Nabarangur hospital. Pramila and Prakash were referred to SLN Medical College where the former died. Pramila was a ward member."The women died due to food poisoning," said Sobharani Mishra, chief district medical officer in-charge, Nabarangpur.."A team of health officials visited the village on Tuesday morning to take stock of the situation and to find out whether anyone else in the village consumed mango kernel," Sobharani added.The district administration, though, has ruled out starvation as the reason behind the deaths, saying the family is well off. "The family has two tractors, one car and they also get monthly quota of 20 kg of rice at Re 1/kg. On Monday, they had collected 20 kg of rice. Hence, there is no question of them consuming mango kernel owing to poverty," Nabarangpur district collector Ajit Kumar Mishra said.The collector said tribals in the region eat mango kernel as a staple food from time to time. He said awareness programmes are conducted by the administration at regular intervals to make the tribals aware of the harmful effects of consuming such items which can develop fungus over a period of time and cause food poisioning.

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