There were as many as 40 deaths of tribal children in Maharashtra's Palghar district in the months of April and May due to malnutrition, thee district administration has confirmed.
In the year 2020-21, there were 296 deaths due to malnutrition in the district, an official release issued by the Palghar Zilla Parishad also said.

Consequent upon the large-scale deaths of children in the district due to malnourishment in past two months, chairman of the state appointed committee to go into the status of the schemes of tribals in the state, Vivek Pandit. visited Wada taluka and conducted an inspection. After the inspection, he made the shocking statement that the concerned officials did not have any records of the malnourished children and the benefits of the schemes did not reach the tribals, especially children and their families, he claimed.

Due to the faulty policy and insensitive implementation of the schemes, there were large-scale deaths of tribals in the district due to malnutrition, Pandit added. 
He demanded stringent action against those who play with the lives of the tribal children and cook up records to present a "rosy picture".

Maharashtra, incidentally, is India's most industrialised and richest states.