India, Aug. 19 -- A few girls at a government tribal hostel in Maharashtra's Amravati district began crying, laughing and fainting without any clear explanation. Within days, rumours of ghosts, possession and a "chakwa" spread across nearby villages.

What followed was the exodus of hundreds of students from the "haunted" hostel, as parents took their children home fearing something was wrong with the campus.

The hostel is part of Shaskiya Madhyamik Va Uchha Madhyamik (Kala va Vigyan) Ashram Shala Doma, a government tribal residential school in Doma village, Chikhaldara taluka. It is run by the Tribal Development Department and was established in 1979.

A state health team that examined the affected girls found no evidence of anything su...