A 15 year old boy died and three younger children were hospitalised after consuming watermelon in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district on Sunday. Officials say the children had eaten already cut watermelon after they travelled to their maternal uncle’s house.
Akhilesh Dhivar, 15, who hails from Podi Dalha village, shortly afterwards began vomiting and developed diarrhoea and breathing difficulties.
District hospital civil surgeon Dr S Kujur said that Akhilesh developed the symptoms a few hours after they consumed the watermelon at the house.
The three other children developed similar symptoms later.
"As their condition deteriorated, family members rushed them to the district hospital in ambulances at different times on Monday. However, Akhilesh was declared dead on arrival. The three other children were admitted to the emergency ward here," he said.
Dr Kujur said that the watermelon was cut in the morning and consumed several hours later, raising the possibility of contamination.
"Prima facie, the children may have suffered food poisoning due to consumption of contaminated watermelon. The body of the teenager has been sent for post-mortem, and viscera samples have been preserved for forensic examination. Another watermelon kept at the house was sent to the food safety department for laboratory testing," Dr Kujur said.
The exact cause of the death and illness would only be known after the forensic and food safety reports are received.
In a similar incident in April, four members of a family died after they consumed a watermelon in Mumbai. The Forensic Science Laboratory reported that they confimed the presence of zinc phosphide in the viscera (liver, kidney, spleen), stomach contents, bile, and abdominal fat samples of the deceased.
Zinc Phosphide is a highly toxic rodenticide or rat poison.