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.
NHRC issues notice after three girls die of snakebite at Gadchiroli residential school
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.
