Migrant isolated in abandoned house dies of snakebite

JAMSHEDPUR: A 21-year-old quarantined migrant woman died of snakebite inside a vacant house in Tilokuti village under Kharpos panchayat of Majhgaon block in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand late on Monday night, officials said on Wednesday.

The woman, identified as Sunita Kuldi, was under quarantine at the house located in the middle of a farmland along with her husband and 12 other migrant workers, who had returned from West Bengal.

“We are investigating the matter. We have provided immediate monetary compensation and other reliefs to the aggrieved family,” Virendra Kindo, Majhgaon BDO, said.

A village official,Laxma Chatar, however, said they had written to the administration requesting facilities for migrant workers returning from West Bengal but no facility was provided.

Police sent the body for postmortem late on Tuesday evening.

As per available information, the 14 migrant workers had returned to the village on May 22 on a truck and were advised home quarantine. However, they did not have enough spare rooms in their own houses so the village residents made them stay in the vacant house in the farmland.

Madhu Kuldi, Sunita’s husband, said, “We were working at a brick kiln in West Bengal and returned to our village on May 22. As a precautionary measure, locals asked us to stay in the vacant house since we did not have spare rooms in our houses to follow quarantine .” “

The unused house did not have a floor or doors. There were many snakes around. Around 12.30 am, a snake bit my wife and she had died by the time we reached the hospital,” Madhu said.