By Salman Ravi BBC Hindi service, Kalahandi, Orissa

Hundreds have been admitted to hospital (Photo: Kalinga Times)

Villagers are facing starvation in a tribal area of eastern India where an outbreak of cholera has killed scores of people in recent weeks.

The BBC visited affected districts in Orissa state and found people with no food, surviving on leaves. They said they had seen no rice since last year.

Doctors blame contaminated food and water for the cholera epidemic, which officials say has killed 175 people.

Aid workers say years of neglect have helped fuel the spread of the disease.

They say the death toll in the three worst hit districts of Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi is at least 250.

No food

When the BBC visited Kalahandi, we were offered leaves to eat.

Diarrhoea and cholera outbreaks happen nearly every year... lessons are not being learned Bratindi Jenna, ActionAid

In a number of affected areas, we found people with no food. For the past nine months, people in this part of the country have had no rice.

One official in Kalahandi district told the BBC that starvation had played a significant role in many recent deaths from diseases such as cholera and malaria across Orissa.

The Orissa authorities denied there had been any deaths from starvation.

Official Indian policy dictates that those living below the poverty line are given rice by the government.

But those who need it most in this part of the country, appear not to be getting it.

Meanwhile, the authorities have suspended four local government officials responsible for supplying food to this remote region.

The four are accused of siphoning off emergency food supplies for profit.

Police are also seeking to question an agent who supplied rice and vegetables to some remote districts. He has been charged with misappropriating government grain supplies.

The extremely poor indigenous communities who live here have suffered official apathy and neglect for years.

Their drinking water comes from waterfalls and drains, which have been contaminated following severe flooding in recent weeks.

Remote area

The area affected by cholera is about 100km (65 miles) from the district headquarters at Bhavanipatna.

The cholera is spreading (Photo: Pramod Samantray)

It is a remote area, surrounded by hills, and to get here one has to cross waterfalls and rivers on foot.

Orissa's food minister, Vishnubhushan Harichand, arrived in the area by helicopter and travelled to one village by car.

But he could not get to the worst-affected villages - where there are many patients, the water is unfit to drink and there are no medicines.

"Diarrhoea and cholera outbreaks happen nearly every year in this region and on average about 50 people die annually. But lessons are not being learned," says Bratindi Jenna of aid agency ActionAid.

"There needs to be a shift in provincial culture of blaming the tribal way of life for disease outbreaks. The local administration should accept its responsibility for ensuring access to safe drinking water and public health facilities."

ActionAid accuses the authorities of under-reporting cholera deaths to minimise compensation claims.

Kalahandi has been in news since the 1980s when famine there led to many starvation deaths in the district.

Many development projects promised have failed to materialise due to local corruption.