Eight-year-old Anu Koreti’s eyes twinkled as she raved about the performances put together to celebrate World Tribal Day on August 9. She clapped to the dance performances and later raved to her older brother about how much she had enjoyed them. That was the last conversation she had before going to bed at a tribal residential school in Dhanora, Gadchiroli district, in Maharashtra. The programme honoured tribal culture, and gave a call for tribal empowerment.

For Anu and her two older siblings studying here, their only hope for a better future away from poverty was this tribal residential school. For them, and for the two generations of Gonds, a Scheduled Tribe, who studied in the private, aided primary and secondary Ashram School in Japtalai in Dhanora, empowerment meant a window to education.

On the intervening night of August 9 and 10, as Anu and 111 girls in the school lay on the hostel floor, a common krait found its way into the dormitory. It bit six girls, all between 8 and 14 years, killing three. Anu was one of them.

One of the girls was airlifted to a hospital in Nagpur, Maharashtra’s no. 2 capital. She is now home and recovering. One continues to be serious, on ventilator support, at a hospital in Gadchiroli, but out of danger. Another is on her way to recovery.

Residents question the lack of medical and general infrastructure in one of the most underdeveloped and remote parts of Maharashtra, Gadchiroli. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is its guardian minister. Gadchiroli, earlier a part of the Red Corridor, is the eastern-most district of Maharashtra. It has a dense forest cover of over 75%, with rich wildlife. The tribal population is scattered in several remote hamlets and settlements. In the last five years, 99 people have died of snakebite in Gadchiroli.

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Teachers and parents say there are several questions to be answered by those in power, around the lack of school infrastructure, the lack of an ambulance and accessible medical services, and a deficient road network.

What happened that night?

The school where the incident occurred was run by veteran Congress leader and former MP Marotrao Kowase. He is among the five against whom separate FIRs have been registered under several bailable sections. The school’s licence will be cancelled, the Maharashtra government has said. They are also appointing a third party to audit all the 513 private, aided residential tribal schools in the State, Tribal Affairs Minister Ashok Uike told the media.

In Japtalai village, the orange school building stands out against the backdrop of fresh green fields and the colours of the Indian flag. From its population of 1,000 to 1,200 people, around 50 local children study in this school. Most of the children on the rolls are from Etapalli, a village at least five hours away by road.

Set on grounds about the size of half a football field is a two-storied main building, with classrooms on both floors. In a separate building are a few halls. The biggest of them is one measuring 850 square feet. This is where over 100 schoolgirls studying from classes 1 to 10 live and sleep. There are no beds, only mattresses. The only bed is the one for the cook, a contractual worker, who was with the girls at night.

Now, there are mosquito nets, newly fitted. “Had they been there that night, the snake could not have entered. We had raised this so many times in the past, but nobody paid attention,” says school’s cook Tanabai Sanku Durve. She was sleeping with the girls on the night of the incident, to fill in for the school’s woman supervisor, who had allegedly gone on leave without the principal’s approval. She is currently absconding after an FIR has been registered against her for negligence.

Near the window are fresh tyre marks. The parents say the pile of bricks and wooden logs has been removed from near the open windows.

“It is the most conducive environment for a snake. The wood is moist and cool. It is highly likely that these girls did not realise they were bitten by a snake, because this snakebite feels like a mosquito bite,” says the Gadchiroli civil surgeon Dr. Varsha Shivaji Lahade. In fact, in many cases, it is difficult to find the fang marks too, she adds.

The dense tropical dry-deciduous forests and river basins of Gadchiroli and neighbouring Chandrapur districts support a rich diversity of reptilian life. Over 21 species of snakes from multiple families, such as the Viperidae and Pythonidae, are found in these jungles. The Big Four highly venomous snakes — the Indian spectacled cobra, saw-scaled viper, Russell’s viper, and common krait — all live in the jungles of the area.

When the snake coiled itself around the leg of a fourth child, she woke up and screamed in panic. The children, up and running, woke up the cook. “I hit the snake with a stick, but it kept moving. So I called the peon on my phone, asking him to rush here,” says Tanabai.

The peon, Prabhakar Mudke, who was the only school employee present on the campus at that time, rushed in with another stick and hit the snake, killing it. “The girls started complaining of stomach aches and began vomiting. I called Bhoyar Sir, and he called the headmaster,” Mudke says. B.R. Bhoyar is the male supervisor of the school.

The two teachers arrived in school in some time, though the cook and peon are not sure how long it took. Hospital staff say that at about 2.20 a.m. Anu and Deepika Madavi (12) reached Dhanora Rural Hospital, 9 km away, in a vegetable delivery van. They couldn’t take the shorter route down National Highway 930, because the potholes had made it unmotorable, so they had to take the longer 35 km road.

Avishyant Panda, the Collector of Gadchiroli, says it is the responsibility of the school to respond quickly and bring the children in when there is an emergency.

The remaining students were taken in another vehicle. Sushmita Mandal (14), Samruddhi Netam (14), and Deepika Lakda (12) arrived at 2.40 a.m., says Dr. Bagraj Dhurve, the medical superintendent of Dhanora Rural Hospital. Many girls were panicked, so over 12 of them were taken directly to Gadchiroli’s hospital.

“Despite administering all the doses as per protocol, Sushmita and Deepika were non-responsive. CPR was performed. We finally declared them dead around 4.10 a.m.,” he says, adding that “the common krait is at least 10 times more venomous than the king cobra. The golden hour for administering ASV (anti-snake venom) is half an hour after the snakebite. This snake’s venom is neuro-toxic, which means it attacks the nervous system.”

Anu was referred to Gadchiroli’s main hospital, as the Rural Hospital felt she would need to be put on a ventilator, though the Rural Hospital had a ventilator. Anu died on the way to the hospital.

A road that could not be taken

The people of Gadchiroli are raging. “The Ministers should visit us every two days. At least that will make our lives better. We have been complaining about this road (NH930) for a long time now. Every year, for three months, that road remains shut during monsoon,” an angry parent says. “Now that the Ministers want to visit us, contractors have been called overnight to patch the road up with gravel. Had this road been usable, the girls would have reached the hospital in 15-20 minutes. It would have saved their lives. Why is no action taken for that?”

Residents say the same highway is smooth in the neighbouring State of Chhattisgarh but is impossible to use in the stretch between Dhanora and Japtalai. They also claim that the State government shuts its bus service annually during the monsoon season on that stretch.

For Surekha Dayaram Karangami, it means that her daughter has lost three months of school every year for the last two years now. “How will their education take place?” she says.

Today, all the 233 children who were enrolled in the residential school have gone back home. The parents worry about their future if the school shuts down. “We slog on our farms. We don’t have any money to put them in other schools which expect us to buy books and uniforms. Where will our children go if this school shuts down? The government should provide facilities in the same school and should let it function. Address the issues. Why ruin our children’s future by shutting down the school?” says Bharat Jitku Halami, a parent.

A village mourns

Anu had joined her two elder siblings Karan and Arjun, last year to start school. Back home in their remote tribal hamlet of Kehakawahi, a Maoist stronghold till not long ago, her smile would brighten up the entire neighbourhood. It was a task to reach this hamlet in Murumgaon village, barely 25 km away from the Japtalai school. The kuccha road passing through the jungle is not usable during the monsoon. At least two trees have fallen, blocking the narrow, slippery road.

Her older brother, all of 13 years, is inconsolable. Karan Koreti was her guardian. Arjun is a year younger. On the night of the incident, they were on the same campus, but in the halls earmarked for boys.

“We came to know only in the morning. The girls came to tell me that a snake had bitten my sister. I asked which snake. They pointed towards the corner where the dead snake was. The moment I saw it, I got worried,” Karan says. He rushed to the teacher, who assured him that Anu was fine. She asked me to not call anyone,” he says, unable to hold back his anger and grief.

Gajjuram Koreti, the 31-year-old father, is wild with anger. “Should the school not have called us? A peon came to call me in the morning at 9, saying my daughter had been bitten by a snake. But he did not tell me that she had died. It was only when I reached the Gadchiroli hospital that a policeman told me outside the post-mortem room that my daughter was no more,” he says. They gave him a vehicle to bring her body back to the village. “I picked up my boys from the school, shouted at the teachers, and came back,” he says.

Anu wanted to be an Anganwadi Sevika, a woman who serves the community, especially with health care. “She aspired to study well and don the uniform of a healthcare worker,” says her mother Rambai.

The Opposition has questioned the government over its apathy towards tribal students. “Reports indicate that in Maharashtra’s 1,056 ashram schools (schools set up for children of tribal communities), as many as 584 students have died in the past two years,” says NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil, who adds that “the education system has become obsolete”.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve says, “How can the project officer, whose lapse led to this incident, be the complainant in this case? This person should be removed from service. Strict action should be taken against the senior government officials responsible for the lapse of overseeing the quality of these schools.”

Edited by Sunalini Mathew