Ghost rumours empty government ashram school in Maharashtra

Panic empties Maharashtra ashram school after ghost rumours, more than 600 students leave campus in Amravati district, officials treat episode as stress-driven contagion

More than 600 students left a government-run ashram school in Doma village in Maharashtra’s Amravati district after rumours spread that the campus was haunted, Times Now reports. The episode began when around 16 girl students started laughing uncontrollably, then crying, and later appeared numb, prompting other students to report hearing anklets or ghungroos in empty corridors. As the story moved through the school, about 608 students reportedly fled back to their homes.

Officials and medical teams were sent to the school as the scale of the exodus became clear. Police said the 16 girls were counselled by a psychologist and were now fine, with the expectation that they would return soon, according to Times Now. Authorities ruled out a supernatural cause and suggested severe stress and anxiety as a driver, describing the pattern as consistent with mass psychogenic illness.

The incident shows how quickly a closed social environment can turn ambiguity into a shared emergency. A handful of visible symptoms—laughter, crying, silence—became a signal that something was wrong, and the alleged sounds in corridors supplied a narrative that was easy to repeat. Times Now reports that officials were also examining rumours circulating about the school and that students may have watched a supernatural film together beforehand, a detail that matters less for causation than for how a group selects the most available explanation under pressure.

The response focused on restoring confidence rather than punishing anyone for leaving. Amravati’s superintendent of police, Niketan Kadam, said a woman police constable would remain at the school to help students feel safe, and he said he would also stay to reassure students and parents, Times Now reports. The state’s practical problem is not proving a negative about ghosts; it is persuading families to send children back into dormitories once fear has become socially validated.

For government-run residential schools in remote regions, credibility is infrastructure. When it collapses, the cost is measured in empty classrooms and long walks home.

On this campus, the trigger was 16 students behaving strangely and a rumour that travelled faster than any official notice.