OUTLOOKINDIA.COM: Poison Earth

[suchandra]

Although mostly Indians are atheists and reject Lord Krishna's teachings, still,

they might understand that God created this world without poison in the drinking water.

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</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="3" align="center"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3">Ill-fated: Bakhtiar Kaur of Giana village has breast cancer; her grand-daughter Sarabjit has greyed at age 14</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" height="10"></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td colspan="3">PUNJAB: HEALTH</td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="3"> Poison Earth </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3"> Courtesy an overzealous Green Revolution, Punjab has poison in its water and a cancer epidemic on its hands </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">Chander Suta Dogra</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="20" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20">

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</td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3" width="100%">The Curse Is Spreading

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• The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh has conducted a study over two years in five villages along Punjab's major rivulets in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar districts
  
• 88 per cent ground water samples showed alarming levels of mercury, over 50 per cent samples of ground and tap water contaminated by arsenic
  
• Lady's fingers, carrots, gourds, cauliflower and chillies found to have toxic levels of lead, cadmium, mercury; cadmium, arsenic, mercury are known carcinogens; mercury also affects the nervous system
  
• Pesticides beyond permissible limit found in vegetables, fodder, human and bovine milk, as well as blood samples
  
• 65 per cent blood samples showed DNA mutation; there has been a sharp increase in cancer, neurological disorders, liver and kidney diseases, congenital defects, miscarriages
  
• This health crisis has been caused by the overuse of pesticides and the dumping of industrial effluents, which have made soil and water toxic

Though it constitutes 2.5% of the country's area, Punjab accounts for 18% of pesticide used in the country

 

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Baljeet Kaur of Giana village in Punjab's cotton belt has been battling cancer for the last 10 years.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="10"></td></tr><tr><td width="45%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>

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</td><td>Experts now think even the skewed sex ratio in Punjab is due to contaminated water.</td><td>

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</td><td></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td> First it was her husband who died of colon cancer, now she has cancer of the oesophagus. Her neighbour Mukhtiar Kaur is being treated for breast cancer. The family had a hand pump at home which provided them water for their daily needs but abandoned it </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="10"></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3" width="100%">after health officials told them its water was toxic. Now they get raw canal water for drinking and cooking. "Who knows if it is the water which has brought this disease on me?" she says. "All I know is that scores of people in our village are dying of cancer." In neighbouring Jajjal, the word cancer only evokes deja vu. Karnail Singh and his wife Balbir Kaur both have cancer, live in adjoining houses, each with one of their sons. "This village is cursed," says their brother Jarnail Singh.

On death row: Jajjal’s Karnail Singh and his wife both have cancer, live in adjoining houses, each with a son

In Ghaunzpur in Ludhiana district, a good 200 km away, Manjit and Gurjit Singh lost both their parents to hepatitis; an uncle is afflicted with the same.

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="10"></td></tr><tr><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td> The water from the hand pump in the courtyard turns foamy when heated, so they have dug a submersible pump which pumps out water from 300 ft below. Other households in the village cannot afford to do so.

For Punjab's prosperous farming </td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td width="45%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>

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</td><td>Malwa is now called the cancer belt and a Bhatinda-Bikaner train is the 'Cancer Express'.</td><td>

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</td><td></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="10"></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td>households and lush green fields, the famed Green Revolution is beginning to turn bilious from within. Its gushing tubewells, the cattle heavy with milk, the trolleys laden with vegetables destined for urban markets—all are likely to be contaminated with toxins. The state is sitting on an environmental crisis and few of have any idea of how to tackle it.

Some two years ago, when reports of increased cancer deaths first started coming in from the state's cotton belt, the Chandigarh-based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) decided to investigate. A preliminary study it conducted found a much higher prevalence of cancer in the Talwandi Sabo block and the presence of heavy metals and pesticides in drinking water in the area. It recommended a comprehensive study of the status of environmental health in Punjab's other cotton-growing areas, the setting up of a cancer registry in the state, and regular monitoring of the drinking water. Of course, intense pressure from the pesticides lobby ensured none of this came to pass and the report was ignored.

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