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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The Andhra Pradesh high court on Wednesday directed revenue, forest and medical authorities of Kurnool district to provide immediate medical treatment to an eight-year-old orphan girl nearly swallowed alive by a python.
A division bench comprising Justice Ramesh Madhav Bapat and Justice M Narayana Reddy ordered the authorities to file a compliance report in the next 48 hours.
The victim, Pitla Nirmala, was plucking fruits in the forest near her village Siddhapuram in Atmakur mandal with her friends. A 11-foot-long python grasped her as she was climbing down a tree.
Villagers, alerted by the children, killed the snake, which had swallowed her till the waist.
The mandal revenue and forest range officers reportedly refused to provide medical treatment to Nirmala despite the insistent pleas by the vllagers.
The incident, reported in a leading Telugu daily, caught the attention of four women advocates -- Sowbhagya Lakshmi, Anasuya Devi, Bharati and Seeta Devi -- who in turn brought it to the attention of the high court. They requested the court to direct the officials concerned to provide medical help to the victim.
The news item was treated as a writ petition and placed before the division bench.
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