Anklets chiming, woman crying, and more; 600 students leave school hostel

MUMBAI: The melodic chime of anklets and laughter runs through the corridors during midnight hours. Sometimes, these are accompanied by the cries of a woman. The students of the girls' hostel of the tribal school in Amravati are terror-stricken over the recent developments. As the news spread throughout the school, the fear among the children doubled. The parents also raised doubts about the building being haunted.

Later, 608 students, including boys from a nearby hostel, left the boarding school and returned to their homes. The incident took place at the government ashram school in Melghat, a tribal area in Amravati district of Maharashtra.

But health experts debunked the ghost theory and termed the incident as a 'mass psychogenic illness' or 'mass hysteria' (a collective mental illness). The anxiety and fear caused by exams, severe mental stress, and homesickness in one group spread to others like an epidemic. School authorities also say that it is not a supernatural event but a mental health-related condition.

Headmaster Sanjay Chaudhary denied the parents' claim that these incidents occurred after a tree was cut on the school premises. Special counselling has been started for the children. The district administration has informed that all necessary steps have been taken to convince students and move forward with education. Authorities say that the fear spread due to the failure to provide counselling at the first signs of mental stress. Organisations working against superstitions are also in the field of awareness and counselling.