“Give us water, Give us water, Give us water.”
On the afternoon of January 22, 2025, the screams of three sisters — aged 16, 18, and 23 — who were later airlifted to PGI Chandigarh, echoed the quaint walls of the Government Medical College (GMC) in Rajouri as they were being rushed to the isolation ward just opposite the OPD of the hospital.
Badhal, a small village in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, has been making news ever since December last year. That is when tragedy first struck the village located in the Pir Panjal mountains.
On the morning of December 7, Fazal Hussain, his wife, and four children fell sick and succumbed to severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and drowsiness a day after consuming a community meal, khattm-i-shareef. The family of three other most-affected persons—Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Yousuf, and Muhammad Rafeeq—was also present at the meal.
Just two days after Badhal, located 60 kilometres away from the district headquarters of Rajouri city, began to recover from the tragedy, the sky fell over Muhammad Aslam, Fazal Hussain’s brother-in-law. His six children fell ill, and all of them passed away. On January 15, two more relatives of Aslam—a maternal uncle and an aunt—also died under similar circumstances.
Now, over a span of 50 days, 17 lives from three inter-related families, including 14 children and a pregnant woman, have been claimed by this mysterious illness in a village of around 3,800 residents, leaving experts baffled and the community shattered. The youngest victim, a minor girl named Yasmeen, passed away on January 19, 2025, despite intensive medical care.
All the affected persons complained of fever, pain, nausea, intense sweating, and loss of consciousness before dying within days of admission to hospitals.
Preliminary investigations by doctors suggested pesticide contamination as a possible culprit. Samples from a local water reservoir, baoli, tested positive for pesticides and insecticides. This forced authorities to seal the water source and impose strict containment measures under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, restricting public gatherings and access to the area.
Muhammad Nayeem had to cut back on all the preparations he made for his brother’s marriage. “Only three people, including the groom, went up to the hills to get the bride,” he sobbed while removing the decorations from the wall. “What can we do? I haven’t seen such a thing in my 50 years of life. This is just Khuda Kahar—the wrath of God.”
As the numbers grew, experts became increasingly curious. After days of research and examinations, they discovered the presence of neurotoxins—a set of chemicals diverse in nature that disrupt the functioning of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Alcohol (ethanol) was found to be the most effective neurotoxin, along with others like monosodium glutamate, used as a flavour enhancer, and acrylamide, found in some baked and fried food. Chronic consumption of these can cause brain shrinkage, cognitive decline, strokes, and behavioural disorders.
However, no viral or bacterial infection has been detected. The main symptoms found in affected persons were fever and sweating.
Shuja Qadri, a senior epidemiologist and head of the Community Medicine Department, In-charge of investigating the Badhal deaths, noted that all investigations so far make it clear the deaths in the village were not caused by any virus or communicable disease. “We have narrowed the probe down to the identification of toxins in food items,” Qadri told Down To Earth.
“As of now, our epidemiological investigations show that it is not a bacterial, viral, protozoan, or zoonotic disease. The only remaining possibility is toxins,” he said.
“The main transmission of toxins is through ingestion. We have concluded that it is a result of toxins. Now, the only debate remaining is whether the infusion was deliberate or accidental.”
Presently, more than 200 food samples are under screening across various institutions in the country to isolate the neurotoxin. Qadri asserted, “Within a span of a week or 10 days, the laboratories will be in a position to isolate the toxin based on the panel of toxins. Hopefully, very soon, we will be able to take control measures to prevent further deaths.”
Experts at GMC Rajouri are also considering parallels with the June 2019 Muzaffarpur mystery in Bihar, where a toxin in litchi fruit, methylene cyclopropyl-glycine, caused over 150 child fatalities, which the CDC in Atlanta helped detect at that time.
A senior doctor actively involved in the Rajouri mass deaths investigation pointed to food-related toxicity as the most likely cause. “The toxin in food metabolises so fast that by the time we examined the samples, we could not find lethal traces of anything,” said the doctor. “Pesticides and insecticides linked to foul play were found in some samples but within permissible limits.”
Despite no viral or bacterial infection being detected, with 100-plus tests conducted by premier labs like ICMR, DRDO, and CSIR returning inconclusive, the containment of the village into three zones—houses experiencing fatalities, families identified as having contact with affected individuals, and the rest of the area—has been criticised for being unfair to residents grappling with poverty in this remote region.
For Rubina Kauser, a mother of three children, life in the village is akin to living in hell. Every night, she walks three kilometres from her in-laws’ home to her parents’ house to protect her children.
“My husband works in Kuwait. I am afraid to cook or even sit in my house,” Rubina sobbed as she fetched water from a container delivered daily from Rajouri. “I can’t see my kids dying of a disease that’s not even recognised.”
Similar apprehensions are shared by Ishfaq Ahmad, a neighbour of Aslam whose six children died. He has been placed in an isolation ward by the authorities. “I haven’t slept for the last two months. The fear of death grips me every night,” Ishfaq said.
The deaths in this remote area have exposed glaring disparities in healthcare accessibility. On January 21, during his visit to the area, Jammu and Kashmir’s newly elected Chief Minister Omar Abdullah acknowledged the urgent need for improved medical infrastructure in remote regions. He assured families of unwavering government support and promised accountability if any criminal intent is uncovered.
Meanwhile, villagers remain gripped by fear, avoiding shared water sources and questioning every meal. “We don’t know what’s safe anymore,” Ishfaq lamented.
For weeks now, teams of an 11-member Inter-Ministerial high-level Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) team, along with experts from NCDC, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS, and other institutions, have been investigating the mysterious deaths.
On Wednesday, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Chandigarh visited Badhal village. Amarjeet Singh Bhatia, principal of GMC Rajouri, expressed hope that the victims will recover soon and the disease will be detected.
“Teams from forensic departments in Chandigarh and Lucknow and the MHA are present here. A common cause in all deaths is brain involvement and damage to the nervous system. Out of nine patients admitted to GMC Rajouri, five have recovered. We have also conducted preventive CT scans, but once the toxin reaches the brain, recovery becomes difficult. We hope to find the cause of the disease soon. We will educate people and raise awareness, such as advising them not to exchange food items,” Bhatia said during a press conference.
“So far, over 200 samples have been sent for testing to different institutes. The central inter-ministerial team, led by a director-rank officer in the MHA, has been camping in Rajouri town since January 19,” Bhatia concluded. “These recoveries have sparked hope for us.”