Family members attend a funeral procession for victims who died after drinking poisonous alcohol in Kalakurich district of Tamil Nadu state in India on Thursday.
R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images
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R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images
CHENNAI, India — Ponnusamy Rajendran, 55, a day laborer, unloads bags of potatoes, onions and tomatoes at the local wholesale market in the southern Indian town of Kalakuruchi. Last Wednesday, after Lai Ming finished work, he bought three 50-cent plastic bags of fake wine to satisfy his addiction. Since he earns less than $4 a day, he cannot afford anything more expensive.
“His salary budget was limited, and after sharing half of his income with his family, he did the math and found that buying fake wine was very profitable,” Kaliappan Gnanavel, Rajendran’s son-in-law, said in an Indian Thai language. Mir said.
Rajendran died on Thursday at a government hospital in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was one of 56 people who died after drinking alcohol laced with methanol produced in the Karakulchi region.
Consumption of contaminated alcohol has caused mass casualties in several parts of India. States such as Assam, Punjab, Bihar and Tamil Nadu have reported hundreds of deaths due to bootlegging due to its lower cost and low availability despite prohibition laws.
Counterfeit wine makers add toxic methanol to cheaply boost alcohol content, a study suggests. Methanol causes the body to produce too much acid that the kidneys cannot clear. It can also damage vision.
“‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ my father said. ‘I can’t see anyone’s face.,‘” said Rajendran’s daughter, Kapagam Nanaville. She remembers her father crying that morning after drinking. “Then a neighbor came and announced that someone had died in the area due to drinking,” she said in Tamil.
A total of 215 patients with vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea were admitted to four different hospitals starting Wednesday morning, according to a doctor familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Currently, four of them remain in critical condition.
The Tamil Nadu government responded to the deaths by appointing former rural development official MS Prasanth as the new top official in Kalakurich.
Several police officers were also suspended, according to news reports. Kaliappan Gnanavel claimed that counterfeit liquor had been sold in the area for years with the knowledge of the police.
One of the first things the new district officer Prashant did was hire more doctors from neighboring districts to treat the growing number of patients.
“Specialists from various places as well as stocks of medicines and antidote for methanol poisoning were transferred to Karakuliki,” Plasanth said.
In order to support medical staff in the four hospitals, 56 doctors were transferred from surrounding areas.
Despite these efforts, one in four hospitalized patients does not survive.
“This is a complex socio-economic issue,” Plasanth said. “Because of poverty, there is demand and some choose lower priced drinks. We have to reduce supply and do some long-term intervention in the area.
On Wednesday, Kaliappan Gnanavel and about 50 other villagers staged a protest at the local police station demanding the arrest of illegal alcohol producers as their father-in-law was hospitalized and the death toll mounted.
Plasanth said seven people involved in illegal alcohol production have been arrested so far.
Currently, the Tamil Nadu government has announced a compensation of US$12,200 to the families of the victims in this tragedy.
Karpagam Gnanavel confirmed that her family received compensation for the death of her father. But she’s angry the government didn’t act sooner.
“We fought with smugglers to stop the sale of this substance, but they questioned us, ‘Why did you allow him to come to us to buy? Leave him at home,'” Kapagam said. “A crisis must not Happen again.
Anupama Chandrasekaran is an audio and print journalist based in Chennai, South India. She previously reported for Reuters in New York. Her work also appears in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, this British Broadcasting Corporation and german wave. She works closely with community radio journalists in India. You can find her on X @indiantimbre.
