RANAGHAT: A two-year-old baby died and seven others fell ill at a shelter home in West Bengal's Nadia district on Monday allegedly due to food poisoning, officials said.
The incident happened at the shelter home in Ranaghat's Rabindra Sarani area, District Magistrate Partha Ghosh said.
The shelter home is run by NGO State Adopted Agency and total 16 babies live there, he said.
However, sources said that the number of babies taken ill is more and the toll may rise as a few babies are critical.
They are undergoing treatment at the Ranaghat Anulia Hospital, Ghosh said.
The babies started falling ill after having food on Sunday night, officials said.
Babies abandoned by their parents are provided shelter at the home, local sources said, adding that babies as young as six months are kept there.
The home has the provision to provide shelter to ten babies but it houses more, they said.
Childless couples can adopt babies from this shelter home, they added.
The district magistrate dismissed the allegation of child trafficking at the shelter home, maintaining that they are looking into the incident of food poisoning.