Ghosts or Mass Hysteria? What Really Happened to the School girls at Maharashtra’s ‘Haunted’ Hostel

A few girls began crying, laughing and behaving unusually at a government tribal residential school in Maharashtra. Soon, whispers of ghosts and possession spread through the hostel and nearby villages. Within days, around 600 students had gone home. Officials and health experts, however, pointed towards psychological stress rather than anything supernatural.

This news overtook the internet leaving everyone questioning whether ghosts really exist. There were speculations about how a tree, thought to be the home of many spirits, in the school premises was cut, and now those ghosts have started possessing students in order to take revenge. 

However, the reality is far more psychological than imagined. Yes, the students were physically found fit, and no signs of illness were detected in their medical report but when mental-health team took time to understand what actually was happening, they found something shocking– a mental trigger, to put in simplest terms.  

How did the Maharashtra ‘haunted hostel’ incident begin?

The incident took place at the Doma Government Tribal Ashramshala in Chikhaldara taluka of Maharashtra’s Amravati district, in the tribal-dominated Melghat region. The residential school is run by the Tribal Development Department and houses hundreds of boys and girls.

According to officials cited in reports, the episode began on July 22, when four girl students reportedly started behaving unusually. They were described as crying and laughing uncontrollably. As the incidents became known among other students, stories about spirits and possession began circulating.

The fear did not remain confined to the girls who had shown symptoms. Reports said some students claimed to have heard the sound of anklets or ghungroos inside the hostel. What may have started as a small and unexplained incident gradually became a much larger story about a supposedly haunted campus. Within days, hundreds of parents became concerned enough to take their children home. Reports put the number of students who left at around 600, with one report giving a figure of 608.

Were the girls actually possessed by ghosts?

There is no official evidence that the students were possessed or that supernatural activity was responsible for what happened. Health officials who examined the students linked the reported behaviour to psychological stress. A medical team from Amravati District General Hospital visited the school, while officials described the episode as a possible hysteria-like condition or mass psychogenic illness.

Reports described symptoms including crying, laughter, fear, fainting and, in some cases, becoming quiet or unresponsive. One report said a later account involved 16 students showing such symptoms, illustrating why the figures reported at different stages of the incident should not simply be treated as the same group.

The important distinction is that mass psychogenic illness does not mean that people are pretending to be ill. Physical and psychological symptoms can be experienced as real, even when an infectious disease or supernatural cause is not found. In this case, officials associated the symptoms with stress, anxiety and the influence of the surrounding situation.

Why did people start believing the hostel was haunted?

Once unusual behaviour had been reported, explanations began filling the gap left by uncertainty. Some students and villagers reportedly believed that spirits had lived in a mahua tree on or near the school premises and had become angry after it was cut down. Another version linked the supposed disturbance to a local deity and the school's surroundings. Reports also carried a third local theory involving the death of an Adivasi youth.

But these were rumours and local beliefs, not findings established by the investigation. In fact, the school's headmaster disputed the claim about the tree, saying it had been cut several years earlier.

This is where the psychology of such incidents becomes important. When people encounter something frightening that they cannot immediately explain, the mind naturally searches for a cause. If one explanation begins circulating within a close group, others can start interpreting their own experiences through the same explanation. Fear can give an ordinary event a completely different meaning, and this is exactly what happened. 

What is mass psychogenic illness? 

Mass psychogenic illness (MPI) is a situation in which a group of people experience similar physical or psychological symptoms without an identifiable infectious, toxic or other physical cause that can explain the symptoms. Fear, stress, anxiety and social influence can contribute to how symptoms spread within a group.

Importantly, it does not mean that people are pretending to be ill. The symptoms can feel completely real to those experiencing them. In schools, hostels and other close-knit communities, seeing someone become unwell or hearing frightening rumours can increase anxiety among others and contribute to similar symptoms.

Why can fear spread from a few students to hundreds?

The Maharashtra incident is being discussed as a possible example of mass psychogenic illness, a phenomenon in which similar symptoms or distress can spread through a group without a common physical disease explaining them.

Schools and hostels can be particularly sensitive environments because students live, study and sleep together. They share the same conversations, surroundings and fears. Once rumours gain momentum, a student who is already stressed may become more alert to every unusual sensation or sound.

That does not mean every person reacts in exactly the same way. Nor does it mean that every unexplained incident is psychological. Medical professionals must first assess possible physical, environmental and mental-health causes. What it does show is why the first response to a frightening school incident matters. Panic, rumours and silence can make an uncertain situation much harder to control.

India has seen similar ‘supernatural’ scares before

The Maharashtra hostel incident is not the first time an unexplained event has triggered widespread supernatural fears in India. In 2017, Delhi and parts of neighbouring northern India saw a wave of reports about women's braids being mysteriously cut. Women described waking up after allegedly losing consciousness and finding that their hair had been chopped. Stories about mysterious figures, ghosts and other supernatural explanations quickly spread.

The phenomenon became so widespread that psychiatrists and investigators began discussing mass hysteria as a possible explanation. One contemporary report quoted an AIIMS psychiatrist as saying that available evidence suggested some women may have cut their own hair, either consciously or while in an altered state. Academic literature later also described the 2017 braid-cutting phenomenon as an episode of mass hysteria among women in North India.

That does not mean every individual case was conclusively explained in the same way. Some incidents involved actual perpetrators; for example, contemporary reporting documented a case in which two people confessed to cutting a girl's braid as a prank. The major lesson is more careful: a widespread rumour can be real as a social event even when the supernatural explanation behind it is not established as fact.

What should schools do when students report ‘possession’?

The first response should be medical and calm, not sensational. Students showing unusual symptoms should receive appropriate medical and psychological assessment. Schools should also check whether there are environmental factors, illness, food or water issues, overcrowding, academic pressure or other sources of stress that may be contributing to the situation. 

Counselling is also important. In the Maharashtra case, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti visited the school and counselled students, while officials urged students and local residents not to give in to supernatural explanations.

Fear breeds when facts are unclear 

The Maharashtra hostel may have felt haunted to the students who were living through the episode. The fear was real. The symptoms were real. The decision of hundreds of families to take their children home was real. But none of that, by itself, proves that a ghost caused what happened.

And perhaps that is the most important part of the story. When something strange happens, the human mind wants an answer quickly. Science asks us to slow down, investigate the evidence and leave room for what we do not yet know. Sometimes, the most frightening thing in a crowded hostel is not a ghost in the corridor. It is how quickly fear can travel from one mind to another.