4 min readBhopalAug 12, 2026 07:00 AM IST First published on: Aug 12, 2026 at 07:00 AM ISTSix children have died and 100 others have fallen ill in four remote, Baiga-dominated villages of Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district over the past month. The health department said it learnt about the deaths only after three children had already died.Though the exact cause of the illness and deaths is not known yet, the immediate challenge for authorities was locating the children in the remote areas and convincing their parents to allow them to be taken to hospital. Eventually, the health officials had to take police’s help to ensure the children were sent to the hospital.