Two women have died at Mandipanka village in Odisha's Kandhamal district reportedly after consuming a dish made of dried mango kernel.

While Runu Majhi, 25, died on Thursday night during treatment, Ramita Pattamajhi, 32, passed away on Friday morning while being shifted to MKCG Hospital in Berhampur, southern Odisha.

Six other persons have been admitted to the hospital after reporting severe vomiting, loose motion and stomach ache. The village has 367 people.

It is alleged that tribal people are forced to eat mango kernel as the rice supply under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) is either inadequate or not supplied to the people at the right time.

The state government has ordered a probe into the deaths in Kandhamal.

Health and family welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling said: “We have initiated an investigation into the matter. However, people in Kandhamal consume mango kernels and that leads to health complications.”

Sources said people of six families fell ill after eating mango kernel. All of them were shifted to the local community health centre at Gadapur.

MKCG doctor Subrat Das said: “The victim died of food poisoning, and treatment of another six is going on. The condition of one of them is serious, and others are being kept under observation. According to the report, the food poisoning occurred because they had eaten mango kernel. As they ate stale mango kernel, it turned poison.”

Locals said people were forced to eat mango kernels as they did not have food for sustenance.

Local sarpanch Kumari Mallick told The Telegraph: “As we all live in dense forest areas, the rice supplied under the NFSA is not reaching people on time. There has been no distribution of rice for the last three months, prompting people to depend on mango kernel. Eating mango kernel remains one of our food habits. But here in this case, the mango kernel turned stale and the victim had taken it after keeping it for a few days in their household.