12 children hospitalised in Chamarajanagar after eating wild seeds

Twelve children of migrant labourers were hospitalised after reportedly eating wild seeds in Yelandur taluk of Chamarajanagar district on Sunday.

The children from Ballari, who were staying in Yeriyur village, were believed to have consumed ‘Maralekayi’, the seeds of trees that grow in the wild.

Soon, they began vomitting and fell sick. “The children of various ages ate Maralekayi after one of them tasted a few,” said an official.

They were treated at Yelandur taluk hospital and later shifted to Chamarajanagar district hospital. The children who were in Chamarajanagar reportedly to harvest sugarcane were out of danger now, the sources added.

“All of them are recovering now,” Chidambara, District Health Officer of Chamarajanagar, said, adding that they will soon be discharged.

The sources in the Health Department recalled that a similar incident was reported from Kollegal taluk in Chamarajanagar district about a year ago when about eight or nine children ate seeds of some wild trees and had to be hospitalised after developing complications.