Mere hours after the Maharashtra government told the Bombay high court that a 17-day hunger strike by tribal students protesting poor facilities across state hostels had finally ended following the chief minister’s intervention, a fresh crisis rocked the state’s residential school system. On Tuesday, over 30 tribal students were rushed to the hospital with severe food poisoning at an ashram school in Chandrapur district.
This latest disaster comes right on the heels of another tragedy last month in Gadchiroli where three students died from snakebite inside their ashram school. Deeply shaken by the recurring negligence, panic-stricken parents across the region have begun pulling their children out of these hostels.
The poisoning took place at the Amru Naik Secondary Ashram School in Nagarala, situated in Chandrapur’s Jiwati tehsil, bordering Telangana. According to reports, while staffers were preparing the students’ morning meal of dal and vegetables, a live lizard dropped unnoticed into the cooking pot.
The horror unfolded during lunchtime. Around 31 students sitting for their meal had already consumed portions of roti and vegetables when student volunteers serving the dal spotted pieces of the cooked lizard floating in the vessel. Dining was halted instantly, but the damage was done. Within moments, the children began suffering from acute nausea, violent vomiting, stomach cramps, and dizziness, sending the school administration into a tailspin.
Emergency services rushed the affected children to the rural hospital in Jivati for initial stabilisation. As the condition of several students continued to deteriorate, they were urgently transferred to the Rajura Sub-District Hospital for advanced medical care. The incident has sparked widespread outrage among parents and local communities, raising critical questions about hygiene standards and food safety inside government-aided kitchens.
Chandrapur’s guardian minister, Ashok Uikey—himself a tribal leader holding the tribal welfare portfolio in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet—now faces intense scrutiny over the abysmal state of residential institutions in the district. However, Chandrapur district information officer Rajesh Ensarkar said that while the school catered to tribal students, it was an aided residential institution administered under the VJNT (Vimukta Jatis and Nomadic Tribes) department rather than the tribal welfare department directly.
