In Kolar district of Karnataka, a 21-year-old youth made a dangerous bet on drinking alcohol and lost his life. This youth named Karthik had claimed to his friends that he could drink five full bottles of alcohol without mixing it with water. His friend Venkat Reddy challenged him and said that if he could do so, he would give him Rs 10,000.
Karthik drank all five bottles of liquor to fulfill the condition but soon after that his health deteriorated. He was admitted to a hospital in Mulbagal in Kolar district in a critical condition where he died during treatment. This incident is even more tragic because Karthik had been married for just a year and his wife had given birth to a child just eight days ago.
Following this negligent and tragic incident, a case has been registered against six persons including Venkat Reddy, Subramani and three others at Nangli police station. The police have arrested Venkat Reddy and Subramani while the search for other accused is on.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, drinking alcohol causes about 2.6 million deaths every year, which is 4.7 percent of global deaths. WHO also says that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. In a 2023 report, WHO had clarified that there is currently no scientific evidence to show that drinking less than a certain amount of alcohol does not cause cancer risk. Apart from this, there are no studies that prove that the potential benefits of drinking light or moderate amounts of alcohol on heart diseases and type 2 diabetes outweigh the risk of cancer associated with alcohol.
“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the threat to the drinker’s health starts with the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing we can say for sure is that the more you drink the more harmful it is – or in other words the less you drink the safer it is,” says Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges, Acting Unit Chief for Noncommunicable Disease Management at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Karthik’s tragic death highlights the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption and how even a simple bet can prove fatal. A happy family was shattered today, a newborn lost his father at birth and a wife became a widow just because of a stupid bet.