Name Fulla Nayak | Died November 18, 2006, Odisha | |
Fulla Nayak (died 18 November 2006) was an Indian woman who was claimed to have died aged 150, which would make her the oldest woman ever. Due to the lack of a birth certificate, her true age could not be reliably established.
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Claim of old age
Fulla Nayak, who lived in Kanarpur, a village in the Indian state of Odisha, rose to prominence in November 2006, only a few days prior to her death. The Times of India and the Indo-Asian News Service reported that Nayak's then 72-year-old grandson aimed at having his grandmother's alleged age of 125 acknowledged by Guinness World Records, which would make her the oldest woman to have ever lived. At that time, two of Fulla Nayak's four daughters were still alive, aged 80 and 92, respectively.
According to her voters' ID (which had been issued in 1995), Fulla Nayak died aged 120. As a birth certificate could not be provided, there were no authoritative means to determine her age, so that the supposed record was not accepted.
Drug use icon
In the Times of India portrait of Fulla Nayak, it was reported that she was drinking palm wine and smoking ganja and beedis on a regular basis. This story was picked up and spread worldwide, turning it into a supportive anecdote for drug liberalization campaigners that is used until today.