Over 100 students fall ill after eating food at State-run school in Odisha, 1 dead; CM orders probe

More than 100 students fell ill and one of them, a Class 5 student, died on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, two days after eating food at a government-run tribal residential school in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, following which Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered an investigation, officials said.

Students of Kakabandha Ashram School complained of discomfort and fell ill after eating food “not mentioned in the permissible menu” on Sunday morning, April 12, 2026, officials said. Their parents claimed that the children ate fermented rice (‘pakhala’), mashed potatoes and mango pickle, after which they suffered diarrhea and vomiting.