Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 19: A 22-year-old postgraduate student of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology today committed suicide in her hostel.

The student, Sudipta Kumari, hails from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. She was a second-year postgraduate student of agronomy.

Sudipta was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her hostel room. Police have lodged a case of unnatural death and are probing the matter.

Her friends said that Sudipta had a good academic record and went to Bangkok last month to attend the International Rice Conference held there. She was among the six-member team of the university that took part in the conference.

In her suicide note, Sudipta has stated that she took her life as she was suffering from migraine and it affected her studies.

“That might be the reason for her suicide. However, the investigation is on and the truth will come out,” said inspector in-charge of Khandagiri police station, Aseem Panda. The body was sent for post-mortem and later handed over to her family members, who had rushed in from Bihar.

This is not the first instance of students committing suicide in premier educational institutes in the state.

Unable to bear the mental stress caused due to an ailment she was suffering from, Heema A.T., a nursing student of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, committed suicide on September 23. The student from Kerala was also found hanging in her room.

Namita Mohanty, who teaches psychology at Utkal University, said that stress due to academics, relationship with parents, peer groups and romantic involvements were the major triggers of suicide among adolescents.

In July, there were two different cases where engineering students committed suicides in two different incidents under Khandagiri police limits.

Those who ended their lives in these incidents were students Prasant Kumar, 20, of Bihar and Chinmayee Nayak. Failure to perform well in the exams triggered their deaths.

At least five students have killed themselves for not been able to pay the high fees demanded by private technical institutions. They took their lives to avoid peer embarrassment.

A postgraduate student at the Utkal University Sangita Sarojini killed herself following an estranged love affair. This made the authorities set up a special cell with toll free number for students suffering from stress and developing suicidal tendencies.

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students and the reason behind all suicides is untreated depression. Studies indicate that college students who are suicidal are quiet, reserved, depressed, and socially isolated. Thus all of us must try to identify the suicide warning signs,” said Mohanty adding that it was very important for educational institutions to have counsellors.