Representational imageIritty: The dead bodies of a tribal woman and her stillborn baby that were left unattended for over 20 hours inside the Makoottam forest on the Kerala-Karnataka border, near here, were cremated on Saturday.
The mother, Mohini, 20, wife of Rajesh of Makoottam colony, and her girl child died on Friday afternoon reportedly because of lack of medical care during the delivery.
Due to official apathy, their bodies remained at the hut inside the deep jungle for almost a day.
The bodies were brought outside the forest by a group of local people and mediapersons on Saturday morning. Rajesh, Mohini’s grandmother and a few relatives who arrived after being informed about the deaths were present when the team reached the hut located inside the dense forest.
The family had been living in the assigned land in the tribal resettlement area in the erstwhile Block 13 of the Aralam farm. Rajesh, who ekes out a living by gathering forest produce, shifted to the makeshift hut about six months ago while Mohini joined him last month, said K. Velayudhan, Aralam panchayat vice-president and a councilor representing the resettlement area.
Rajesh and Mohini’s grandmother could not do anything to save her as she breathed her last half-an-hour after giving birth to a dead child.
On Friday afternoon itself, a local man had informed the police stations on either side of the border and the Karnataka forest officials about the incident. However, no officials bothered to visit the place or make necessary arrangements to shift the body from the forest, local people alleged.
The bodies were brought to the resettlement area and cremated at the plot assigned to the family on Saturday evening.
Mohini is the daughter of Leela and Chandran, a Paniya tribal couple. Indira and Saneesh are her siblings.
