Tension grips West Midnapore after ‘Tarantula’ bites six villagers

Tension ran high among the villagers of Debra in West Midnapore after six people were bitten by rare species of spider once again revisiting the fear of Tarantula in the state. Tarantula is a species of spider which is commonly found in South America and Africa. 

Those who were bitten by a rare kind of spider have been admitted to Debra village hospital. 

They are currently undergoing treatment in the hospital. Senior officials from the state health and forest department on Sunday visited the district to assess the situation. They also visited the victims in the hospital. 

The forest department officials have started an investigation to identify the insect that had bitten up the villagers and where they were coming from. 

The district administration suspects that the insects were coming from the adjacent areas of the Kasai river as most of the victims were the residents of various villages in the both sides of the river. 

Though, the forest department officials are yet to identify the insect that has already brought the fear of Tarantula in the villages of West Midnapore district. They suspect that this could be a poisonous spider. 

The doctors in the Debra primary health centre initially thought that the patients might have been bitten by snakes as during this time of pre monsoon rain many people from the districts of East and West Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas are often bitten up by snakes. 

But as they started the treatment they found that the symptoms the patients were quite different. 

The suspected that they may be some insects not commonly found in the area. Later some the relatives brought to the hospital the dead insects and showed them to the doctors. 

The insects are furry and almost look like Tarantula. According to the district officials around seven people have been admitted to the hospital in last ten days. On Saturday a villager Ganesh Dey was admitted to the hospital and told the doctors that he was bitten by the insect seven days ago. 

Among the other patients a 15-year-old girl Rupa Dhal was shifted to Midnapore Medical College and Hospital as her condition deteriorated. It was learnt that her condition was deteriorated as she was administered with anti snake venom. Her family members told the doctors that a furry insect looking like a big size spider was found from the room where the girl was stung by the insect. 

A senior official of the Debra primary hospital said that they have been receiving such patients for nearly one and half week. Doctors said the most of the patients are suffering from cellulites. The portions of the body where the insects have stung have swollen excessively. 

They have been given antibiotics. Except one woman all the other patients were responding to the medication. Her symptoms and case history was quite different from the other patients who were brought to the hospital. 

A forest department official said it is suspected that the insects must be some rare kind of spider having similarity with Tarantula. 

Generally there is no fear of death in such cases. There are 100 types of Tarantula in the world. 

The big size insects are found Africa, South America, some parts of Asia and Australia. Tarantula is also found in India. 

One such species is found in West Midnapore district which are generally black in colour. Few years ago some villagers at Churulia in Burdwan fell ill after being stung by Tarantula. 

The health department officials are monitoring the situation and taking time to time report on the health condition of the victims. The forest department officials have also started a probe into the incident.