Conspiracy hatched to defame lychees produced in Bihar: State Agriculture Min

Bihar Agriculture Minister Prem Kumar on Friday came out with a theory claiming that a conspiracy was hatched to defame lychees produced in the state, following an outbreak of encephalitis in Muzaffarpur district which has claimed lives of 122 children.

Speaking to ANI, the minister said that a team of agricultural experts was constituted to ascertain whether lychees were responsible for Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) or not.

"We have constituted a team of agriculture experts to probe whether lychees are responsible for encephalitis or not in Muzaffarpur. People have been consuming lychees since long but now it's become a problem for all, how? I think there is some conspiracy going on to defame lychees. These lychees were exported worldwide but we are not getting any complaint from anywhere except Muzaffarpur. I have instructed the concerned department to investigate," Kumar told ANI.

The death toll due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) touched 122 in Muzaffarpur district on Friday morning.

Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey had earlier said that a team formed to ascertain the cause of this disease concluded that sleeping empty stomach at night, dehydration due to humidity and eating lychee on empty stomach were some of the causes of encephalitis.

The AES is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, vomiting and in extreme cases, brain dysfunction, seizure and inflammation of heart and kidney.