By Daily Review Online
The death toll from a batch of toxic illegal alcohol in India has climbed to 53, according to media reports on Sunday, as more victims succumbed in hospitals.
Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister M.K. Stalin revealed that the locally brewed arrack drink was laced with poisonous methanol, causing the deaths of 37 people within hours after consuming the illegal alcohol on Tuesday.
Over 100 people were rushed to hospitals, but many were too ill to be saved.
While hundreds of people in India die annually from consuming cheap alcohol made in backstreet distilleries, this incident is among the worst in recent years. To increase potency, the liquor is often spiked with methanol, which can cause blindness, liver damage, and death.
The Indian Express quoted a local councillor, Palraj, describing how poor laborers in Kallakurichi district regularly purchased the liquor in plastic bags for 60 rupees ($0.70) and drank it before work. Some victims went blind and were hospitalized, while others died rapidly, collapsing in the street.
“The men work just to drink, and the women run the family,” motorized rickshaw driver Shankar, who lives on a street where 23 people died, told the Indian Express.
M.S. Prasanth, the top government official in the state’s Kallakurichi district, confirmed, “53 people have passed away,” according to the latest figures on Saturday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Other Indian media sources on Sunday reported the toll as high as 55, though there was no immediate official confirmation.
Prasanth noted that seven people had been arrested in connection with the “spurious liquor tragedy,” PTI added.
Although Tamil Nadu is not a dry state, black-market liquor is cheaper than legally sold alcohol. The Indian Express also spoke to Kolanji, a domestic helper whose husband died on Thursday after drinking a packet of the tainted brew. She said people consumed the moonshine “because they cannot afford” alcohol from government-run shops. “They start buying packets early in the morning,” she added.
In several parts of India where selling and consuming liquor is prohibited, the black market for potent and sometimes lethal backstreet moonshine thrives. Last year, poisonous alcohol killed at least 27 people in Bihar, while in 2022, at least 42 people died in Gujarat.