45 students get sick after eating wild nuts

Half-an-hour later, when they had settled down in their class rooms, some of them complained of nausea and loose motions. "While we let some students off early, late in the afternoon more students complained of feeling sick. We thenswung into action and took them all to Central Hospital for treatment," said a teacher, adding, "even if whatever had happened was outside the school, we felt in a way responsible." Ranjana’s mother Archana holds herself and her husband as much responsible as the teachers. But some others squarely blame the school. "How could they have possibly ignored the poisonous plants growing around the school?" they ask. The teachers on their part claim that it was this incident which had made them aware of the plant.

Senior faculty at Botany department of the Birla College, Jossy Varghese, said the plant’s unique chemical make-up made it an ideal constituent of numerous medicines. "This member of the family Euphorbiacae is listed in Indian Medical Plants (Kirtikar and Basu) with all its medicinal uses prominent among which are its purgative and dental uses," he explained and pointed out that even a single seed could lead to at least two to three stools in an adult. He was of the opinion that the heavy intake and thetender ages of the students could have led to the poisoning.