At least 26 children, including 14 girls aged between one and six years, are under treatment at the Nashik civil hospital for malnutrition, hospital sources said today.

The children, hailing from Nashik, Igatpuri, Surgana, Sinnar, Dindori, Trimbakeshwar, Yeola, and Niphad tehsil towns in the district, had been admitted to the hospital on Wednesday last, they added.

The condition of some of the children is stated to be serious, hospital sources told PTI.

Meanwhile, an expert committee of doctors headed by former member of Parliament and city chief of the Nationalist Congress Party, Dr Vasantrao Pawar, on Sunday visited the civil hospital and inspected the children hospitalised for malnutrition.

The committee members then met the hospital's medical officers and later discussed the matter with the children's parents.

The committee, appointed recently by the state government, would submit its report to the government after studying the situation in others parts of the state.

Earlier, Maharashtra Tribal Development Minister Madhukar Pichad and Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and former health minister Dr D S Aher visited Surgana and Dindori tehsil towns to get a first-hand account of the the malnutrition in tribal-dominated tehsils.