Litchi no cause for AES: National Research Centre for Litchi chief

MUZAFFARPUR: The DDC and officiating DM of Muzaffarpur, Kawal Tanuj, director of National Research Centre for Litchi (NRCL), Vishal Nath, two biggest litchi growers, Bholanath Jha and Raja Babu, litchi processing entrepreneur, KP Thakur and exporter, R K Kedia on Friday separately denied any link between litchi and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), which has killed 52 children in Muzaffarpur this summer so far.
The DM said scientists of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have unanimously ruled out that AES has been caused by litchi virus. Other experts doing research on AES have not linked AES with litchi any way so far. AES seems to be a seasonal disease and it is a coincidence that both AES and litchi harvesting occur almost at the same time. But no scientist has so far established that the disease is caused by litchi, he stressed.
In fact, a rumour has been spread in some southern cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai through social media for the last three days that children are dying in Muzaffarpur after eating litchi.
Twelve tones of litchi transported by a particular group from Muzaffarpur has been dumped at Bangalore because there is no takers for this famous fruit there after the rumour. Similarly, the traders of Mumbai have raised their hands to buy Muzaffarpur litchi as their customers have refused to buy it for fear of the disease.
The growers of Muzaffarpur litchi on Friday took this rumour as a conspiracy to defame the fruit which has many healthy nutrients and antioxidants to fight against diseases.
Moreover, they claimed it is an attack on their livelihood and the reputation of the costliest and one of the sweetest fruits of India.
China is the greatest litchi producer in the world but there is no such claim or rumour that AES has been caused there by litchi, grower Jha and entrepreneur Thakur remarked. They said litchi is being grown right from Tripura in the east, to Punjab in the west but no such claim has been made about litchi grown elsewhere. Litchi is not cultivated in the south and rumour emanating in south gives some doubt about malafide intentions of rumour- mongers.
Addressing newsmen here on Friday, Jha and Thakur argued that AES death started from April itself whereas litchi plucking has started from May 15. Moreover, a seven- month-old child has died of AES and eating litchi by that infant is unimaginable. AES death has been reported from Aurai block area also where there is no litchi tree because the area is fully flood-prone. Scientists of the country have not yet found the reason or medicine for the disease.
The owner of a 100-acre litchi orchard in Chhapra village under Minapur block, Raja Babu said nearly 200 families are living around the orchard but so far no child is suffering from AES. All this prove that litchi has nothing to do with AES. If someone eats rotten litchi, it is bound to harm his or her health. It applies with all other fruits, the growers said.