Ten plantation workers were admitted to the Maskeliya Regional Hospital on Thursday afternoon after being attacked by hornets during a religious ceremony at a tea estate, Hiru News reported.
The attack took place during a puja at the Muniyandi Kovil on the Hapugastenne Tea Estate in Maskeliya, in the Nuwara Eliya district.
Maskeliya Police said the swarm was provoked at around 3:00 pm when a hornet nest in a nearby tree was disturbed while the ceremony was under way.
A hospital spokesperson said four women and six men were admitted, and that the condition of those receiving in-house treatment is not serious.
A recurring hazard in the hill country
Hornet and wasp swarms are a persistent seasonal danger in Sri Lanka’s plantation districts, where nests are often built in the canopy of shade trees standing over tea fields and estate buildings. A disturbance at the base of such a tree — vibration, smoke, noise or a struck branch — can trigger an attack on everyone in the vicinity rather than on one person.
Group gatherings are where the risk turns into mass casualties. In June, twenty students were hospitalised after a swarm attacked their school at Aralaganwila in Dimbulagala, a pattern repeated in schools, temples and estates across the country.
The Hiru report did not say what disturbed the nest at Hapugastenne, whether the ceremony continued afterwards, or whether the nest has since been removed. No other verified newsroom had reported the incident at the time of writing.
