At least 17 persons, most of them children and women, have died in three Upper Assam districts of Golaghat, Jorhat and Sibsagar after having consumed wild poisonous mushrooms in the past four days. The state Government has now warned people not to consume unidentified mushrooms. While 10 persons have died in Golaghat, five have fallen victims in Sibsagar and two others in Jorhat. Seven of those who have died are children. At least 20 others are battling for life in different hospitals. Golaghat district joint director of health H Baruah said that at least three families were affected on April 1 after they consumed mushroom collected from the wild. "We have carried out a thorough investigation and found that three families had bought mushroom sold by a woman who had collected them from the wild,' Baruah said. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said the Government had directed district authorities across the state to alert the people especially in the rural areas not to consume any mushroom collected from unknown and wild sources. She also asked the Assam Agricultural University (AAU) at Jorhat to send a team of scientists to the affected villages in the three districts to collect samples of the mushroom consumed by the people and carry out a study. "It is a fact that people in rural areas collect mushroom from the wild and consume them. I have asked the AAU Vice-Chancellor to send teams of scientists to the affected villages,' Brahma said.