MANDIPANKA (KANDHAMAL): The scar left by the death of two women after consuming mango kernel is starkly visible in Mandipanka village of Kandhamal district.The village atmosphere is unusually silent despite the rush of administration officials, politicians, NGOs and activists after the October 31 tragedy, which has brought back the haunting memories of the infamous 2001 Rayagada district incident, when 24 tribals had succumbed under a similar situation.On the path in front of the asbestos-roofed house of Anil Patamajhi stand two plastic chairs covered in white sheets with garlanded photographs of both the victims on them. A few feet away, Anil struggles to tend to his six-month-old daughter, who has just lost her mother with grandmother battling the consequences at MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur.On October 31, his wife Ramita (28) and a neighbour Runu Majhi (30) died while six others were hospitalised after they consumed the fatal gruel. Though three of the six injured, including Anil’s sister-in-law have been discharged after treatment, his mother is still admitted at MKCG MCH and two other neighbours at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.“This mango kernel took the life of my wife. Had there been sufficient rice, we would not have consumed the mango kernel gruel,” said Anil pointing his finger towards the leftover kernels kept in a polythene carry bag.He was unaware about his wife’s health condition until she complained of vomiting hours before her death. “I called a fellow villager to come with his auto and rushed my wife to Brahmanigaon PHC, nearly 9 km away from our village. A doctor there referred her to Berhampur hospital after administering saline.She succumbed while undergoing treatment.”Before I could think what happened, my wife had already gone,” he said in a choked voice.His ordeal did not end here. He had to borrow money to pay Rs 7,000 to a private ambulance to bring back his wife’s body. Although the state has ‘Mahaprayan Yojana’ offers free transport of dead bodies from government hospitals for poor families, it often fails to benefit people due to inadequate hearse vehicles.”I requested for a vehicle to carry my wife’s body. The hospital officials refused and said no vehicle is available. I had to arrange money from my relatives to pay the private ambulance,” he said.Runu’s family members had to pay Rs 4,000 to bring back her body from another hospital where she was admitted.Describing the fateful day, Anil said, Runu had recooked the leftover gruel kept in open for two-three days and distributed it among the women members of the three families.“We had taken fermented water rice while the children had gone to Anganwadi centre where they had food. This saved our and the children’s lives,” he said.Delay in PDS supply led to the tragedyThe heart-wrenching Mandipanka incident underscores the dire food insecurity faced by tribal communities. The families turned to mango kernel gruel as they had no rice left with them.While the state government provides free 5 kg rice per person, the quantity falls woefully short for many households, particularly the marginalised and small landholding tribal communities who sustain only on rice as they have no means to get other food.Delays in PDS supply are frequent while exclusion of members from the ration card compounds their woes.The tribal families in the village had got rice in July for the July-September quarter and were supposed to get the October-December quarter rice in October. But this time the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department delayed the supply for about a month owing to indecision over the supply of wheat along with rice and updation/integration of point of sales (PoS) machines and digital weighing machines.“We got the rice two days after the death of my wife. The rice we had received in July lasted only a month. We managed for the next three months with whatever was left from our own grown paddy. We were a family of five adults, but got only 20 kg of rice as my wife’s name had not been included in the card. We eat at least a kilo of rice daily. How would we survive with 20 kg rice a month?” asked Anil.Since long, activists have been highlighting the inadequacies in the PDS that leave vulnerable households, especially tribal families, in a state of food distress driving them to consume non-traditional or potentially harmful foods.“Tribals do not consume mango kernels out of choice. It is a matter of survival, as their access to rice and other essentials is simply not enough,” said Bidyut Mohanty, convenor of Right-to-Food, Odisha.PDS rice, Mohanty said, should be provided on a monthly basis and closer to the village.“The villagers are spending Rs 100 to collect the rice for three months from a centre located 9 km away. The government made the PDS distribution quarterly to save its transportation cost but it should not be at the cost of beneficiaries. Besides, the cards should be updated regularly with inclusion of new family members,” he said.Mandipanka has 307 ration cards and the beneficiaries receive rice from Brahmanigaon LAMPS. A district official admitted that the distribution was delayed due to late allotment and PoS machine software updation. He, however, said the cards are updated whenever the beneficiaries approach.A woman drying mango kernels outside her house in the village Mango kernel a scarcity diet for the villagersWith a population of around 1,600, Mandipanka village under Gadapur gram panchayat in Daringbadi block has a mix of castes dominated by Kandhas. Generally, people take three meals a day. They take fermented watered rice with salt or dried mango or sometimes green leaves/potato fry in the morning.They cook one curry, which could be dalma (dal and papaya or potato) or wild mushrooms or home grown seasonal vegetables, and boiled rice for dinner.While fermented rice is the staple, they consume seasonal cereals, pulses and vegetables like maize, mustard, black gram, kandula, sweet potato and local beans.Sometimes, they also eat non-vegetarian items like fish curry, chicken, mutton and even wild boar. They are fond of mahua liquor and taadi (fermented palm sap).But the likes of Anil with small landholding are not fortunate as some of their fellow community members. The family of seven, including two children, has only one-acre of agricultural land and the paddy they grow gets over within five to six months.The PDS rice also falls short and they hardly buy vegetables or pulses due to meagre income.“Most of the time we have only rice with salt or dried mango. Women members take whatever is left. We keep the mango kernels saved for the crisis period during July to November when we have limited rice stock and no other means to survive,” he said.Mango kernels can be hazardous when eaten frequently or not properly cleaned and processed. Consumed only during food shortages, the kernels are traditionally dried, ground, and boiled to make a gruel. Consumption of kernel stored in unhygienic conditions is fraught with risks, but they have no other option.Increased exposure to the outside world might have introduced tribal communities to modern gadgets and practices, but food, a significant part of their culture, remains largely unchanged.Former director of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI) Prof AB Ota said food is deeply tied to the tribal identity.“Traditional foods, including forest products like mango kernels, tubers, and leafy greens, have sustained these communities for generations. For the poorest, these foods can be both sustenance and, at times, a cause for concern,” he said.Tribal researchers argue for an approach that respects traditional practices while also promoting safer dietary habits.“Modernity has been selective for tribals; they pick and choose what suits them. But when it comes to food, they are cautious which is both a strength and a challenge. They must be taught to process the traditional foods properly and slowly divert to vegetables, which some of their communities grow,” said Prof Ota.Water contaminated, no sanitation in villageThe tragic deaths of two women have exposed the bleak reality behind the government claims of rural development and the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission.While the government portals flash ambitious achievements in sanitation and drinking water infrastructure, villages like Mandipanka tell a starkly different story.Water samples were collected from two sources of the village on November 1, a day after the two women died, and tested in the district public health laboratory at Phulbani. The hydrogen sulfide test confirmed fecal contamination in drinking water samples collected from one of the water supply sources.The lab report also indicated that gruel too was not fit for consumption.Mandipanka has a piped water supply, yet residents report that it is unfit for drinking. With no proper filtration or purification, the villagers fetch water from a nearby solar-powered borewell. The absence of toilets in the village forces residents to practice open defecation.“The government makes tall claims, but our village lacks basic amenities. We have a pipe-water connection but the water isn’t drinkable,” said Lalu Ranasingh, a villager.On pen and paper, every household in the village has a toilet. The village has 248 soak pits for liquid waste management along with 135 compost pits for solid waste. As per the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) 2.0 dashboard, 328 individual household latrines have been issued to the village in two phases and the village has been declared as ODF-Plus aspiring.But no such thing is visible on the ground. The residents are deprived of many welfare schemes of the government. Although most of the eligible women have applied for financial assistance under the state government’s flagship Subhadra scheme, not a single woman has received the first installment of Rs 5,000.“Until the authorities address these pressing issues and prioritise safe drinking water and sanitation in the tribal villages, incidents like the tragic deaths in Mandipanka will remain a dark reminder of unkept promises and neglected communities in the shadows of progress,” said Mohanty.However, director of Public Health Dr Nilakantha Mishra said food poisoning leading to multi-organ failure due to fulminant hepatitis might have caused the death of two women who had consumed stale mango kernel gruel.“Two affected women who are undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital have been diagnosed with pulmonary hepatic failure caused by a fungal infection. They are being treated for multi-organ failure. This is why we are suspecting that the other two women could have died due to fulminant hepatitis,” he said.Anil Patamajhi, who is mourning his wife’s death, feeds his infant daughter at his house in Mandipanka villageLack of food security leads to distress migrationIn Mandipanka village, a deeper problem beyond food insecurity is unemployment.Despite the government promises of 100 days of work per household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), residents say they do not get any work forcing many to migrate to distant states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.Kandhamal is among the nine districts that have been identified by the state government as prone to distress migration. Tall claims of consistent MGNREGA work across the state notwithstanding, almost every household in Mandipanka has a migrant labourer.Unable to rely on MGNREGA for income due to lack of sufficient work, people are often forced to leave their homes, risking uncertainty and hardship as migrant labourers in other states.“There is no MGNREGA work, no job. I have worked for three days only this year so far and received Rs 640. Many of us are forced to migrate because there are no local jobs to help us sustain our families. We have not even been provided with house under PMAY, nor the Subhadra Yojana assistance,” said Anil.He and his elder brother had also migrated to Kerala for work.Lack of employment has left residents vulnerable to food insecurity with some families turning to extreme measures for survival.A woman showing the seeds of wild beans what they consume with rice.Poor health, anaemia cause of concernThe incident has also spotlighted severe health and nutrition challenges faced by tribal communities.For the people of Mandipanka, where women struggle with undernutrition and anaemia, the tragedy reflects the harsh reality of a nutritional crisis compounded by food crisis and insufficient support system.According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), Odisha’s nutrition indicators paint a grim picture, especially among tribal women and children.Overall 64.2 per cent of women aged 15-49 suffer from anaemia, an issue linked to low iron intake and poor nutrition. Around 26.4 per cent of women, aged 15-49 group have a body mass index (BMI) classified as underweight, with the percentage significantly higher in remote tribal areas such as Kandhamal.As per NFHS-5, 53.4 per cent pregnant women and 48.8 per cent non-pregnant women, aged 15-49 years and 55.3 per cent children below 5-year-old in Kandhamal district are anaemic. At least 34.2 per cent children under 5 are stunted while 23.2 per cent in the same age group are acutely malnourished.Overall 48.9 per cent of women between the age group of 15 and 49 years are anaemic.Mandipanka village is a case in point where food scarcity, especially during the July-November lean period, pushes families toward consuming non-traditional and potentially unsafe foods as a last resort.“These women are vulnerable to serious health risks due to lack of sufficient food and nutrition resources. The inadequate access to iron-rich foods and essential nutrients has left many women undernourished, with anaemia sapping their strength and further endangering their well-being,” said Namita Parida, a social worker.Connectivity continues to be a nagging problemFor villages like Mandipanka, limited connectivity means not only physical isolation but also barriers to accessing essential services, including banking and social welfare programmes. The tragic deaths also laid bare the connectivity challenges faced by remote tribal villages in regions impacted by left-wing extremism (LWE).Poor infrastructure and lack of reliable internet connectivity have hindered residents from even completing basic tasks, such as opening bank accounts or updating e-KYC information for their ration cards. Without these, people are unable to secure their rights to government entitlements, forcing them to depend on inadequate or irregular food supplies.The struggle to complete e-KYC and open bank accounts has impacted the villagers’ access to the PDS and other welfare schemes, further worsening the situation for families already battling food insecurity.“I have been going to the Brahmanigaon branch of SBI for last two days to open an account after the district administration advised me to do so to get assistance. But the bank is unable to open it due to disruption in internet connectivity,” said Anil.Sarpanch of Gadapur Kumari Mallik going to fetch drinking water from a nearby dug well.Mandipanka has a mobile tower erected more than six months back, but it is yet to operate.“Updating e-KYC for ration cards is almost impossible for us due to the lack of internet. Many people are left without access to government benefits simply because of the connectivity issues,” explained Anesh Pradhan, a local resident.Not only the insufficient rice supplies pushed residents to consume unsafe alternatives like mango kernels, lack of access to services leaves many with no recourse for survival.Communication is affected in hundreds of villages in the district due to non-resolution of certain issues in the installation of mobile towers under the aspirational district project. The implementing agencies are facing challenges in installing towers at 165 sites in Kandhamal.How the gruel is preparedTribals collect mango kernels during May and June. They dry the seeds and bury them in a pit. On a rainy day, these are taken out of the pit. The kernels are pounded into fine pieces.The pounded kernel pieces are kept in a bamboo basket covered with a piece of cloth and kept on a flowing stream to wash off the astringent and bitter taste. The basket is taken out from the stream after one or two days and sun dried. The kernel pieces then are pounded and turned into powder. Covered with a piece of cloth, kernel powder is again kept in a running stream to get rid of any trace of remaining bitterness. The powder is cooked with rice or any minor millet.Mango kernel deaths: BJD criticises Odisha government’s decision to transfer principal food secretary
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