Jagatsinghpur (Orissa), April 29 (IANS) Two little girls have become the centre of attention in a small village in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district by eating large quantities of green chillies.

One-and-a-half years old Tuni and her three-year-old sister Punita, residents of Bangalishai village, about 120 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, claim they can each eat about half a kg of green chillies in one go.

'My daughters have had this peculiar habit from the beginning,' their father Sasank Sen told IANS.

The common diet of people in the village is rice with onions and green chillies. Like most people in the region, Sen and his wife grow chillies in their farm.

The two sisters help their parents pluck chillies and eat them like berries. Initially the girls were consuming about 20 to 50 green chillies everyday. Later, the number increased.

Sen hopes his daughters will soon set a record in eating chillies.

"If they can withstand chillies it will not harm them but anything in excess is bad. The parents should not encourage the children to eat such a large amount of chillies,' said Gadadhar Sarangi, a paediatrician.