DARJEELING HAD A FORTUITOUS ESCAPE, THANKS TO ITS MUNICIPALITY

Amitava Banerjee, HT, 12 June 2014, Darjeeling: A waste management exercise undertaken by the Darjeeling Municipality helped avert a likely health catastrophe like that in Malda. There could have been a rerun of the Malda tragedy where multiple child deaths have been reported from suspected litchi fruit poisoning over the past few days.
On June 4, the Darjeeling Municipality had issued a notification stating that as lichi leaves, branches (which take long to degrade) and its seeds and skin often choke municipality garbage vats, the fruit sellers association was asked to pay the municipality Rs 2,500/- per vehicle for the branches, leaves and leftovers to be lifted to the main garbage dump located on the outskirts of the town. In order to avoid paying the money to the municipality, the fruit vendors association decided not to sell the fruit this year. Now, after Malda incident, the district is thanking its municipality for its fortuitous escape.
“In 2013 also we had adopted similar measure. The Darjeeling Fruit Vendor’s Association (DFVA) on receiving the notice decided that none of the fruit sellers would sell litchis. They had communicated this decision to us verbally. During inspection we couldn’t find any litchi in the stalls. At that time little did we realise that this would emerge as a boon in disguise,” said Arjun Chettri, food and sanitary inspector of Darjeeling Municipality, told HT.
On June 7, tragedy struck Malda where at least eight children died and many more were ailing from encephalopathy spreading from litchi. These children are from the villages from around Malda where the fruit is produced in abundance.
In 2012, more than 100 children died of encephalopathy in Malda alone, The disease is supposed to have originated in China. The symptoms include high temperatures, convulsions and vomiting.
“We actually decided not to sell litchis this year as it would involve paying the municipality R2,500 per truck to lift the garbage generated by the fruit. However, now we are happy that we had taken this decision. A single death would have caused a lot of problems for the fruit sellers. We buy litchis from the fruit market in Siliguri and they in turn source their stocks from Malda,” said Kapoor Chand Gupta, president of DFVA.
There are around 22 shops affiliated to the DFVA and the total consumption of litchi in Darjeeling town is around four tonnes each season.
“Luck saved us. Children love litchis. However, similar incident like of Malda could have happened here. Unknowingly the killer fruit could have caused deaths here. We are thankful that the hawkers decided not to sell litchis. It is a blessing in disguise,” said Sujara Baraily, mother of a three-year-old girl.
A special team comprising experts from the School of Tropical Medicine (STM,) in Kolkata, along with the public health service department, has been formed to look into the matter in Malda. Along with probing into the child deaths, the experts will also create awareness among the public.
The special team has collected samples of cerebro spinal fluid (CSF) and blood sample of the Malda patients for confirmatory tests.