It's dogs life for those living here

Hopes of cricketers' connection helping Gangnauli wane

Over 100 people in Gangnauli have died of various diseases in last five years

No family in this Uttar Pradesh village voluntarily gets medically examined unless severe symptoms of any disease begin to manifest. The people are scared that a medical test would reveal some serious ailment.

“The villagers want to believe they are free from disease. They want to live in peace because they know medical test will turn their lives topsy-turvy,” says Dharmendra Rathi, the pradhan (chief) of Gangnauli village in Baghpat district.

But it is hard for them to escape the grim reality that has the village firmly in its grip. According to residents and those working for them, over 100 villagers have died of cancer, bone deformities, jaundice and hepatitis over the last five years. Locals and doctors blame this on contaminated water.

Hundreds of villages across six districts in western Uttar Pradesh, through which the Krishna river flows, are affected by its contaminated water. But Gangnauli is the worst-hit. Over two dozen children and youngsters in Gangnauli lead a life of servitude as they suffer from bone deformities of various

degrees. A dozen others are left paralysed.But it is the cancer that has left the villagers scarred. While the villagers believe that cancer caused almost all of the 100 deaths in this village, local doctors put the number anywhere between 20 and 25. “I have myself seen six villagers die of cancer,” says Chandrapal Singh, a quack who has been practising in Gangnauli for the last eight years. Though he has formal qualification, he has been catering to the needs of half of the 5,000-strong village.

Gangnauli is located only 12 km from Bamnauli village which happens to be cricketer Suresh Raina’s in-laws home. Looking for a platform to highlight their plight, Gangnauli residents saw a ray of hope when the wedding was announced. “But no one from our
village was invited for the wedding (held in Delhi),” says Rathi.  Another cricketer Praveen Kumar’s connection to the village too did little to draw attention. The bowler’s father was posted at the local police station till sometime ago.

The villagers say they were not even aware what was the cause for health problems. The water flowing in the Krishna river had been turning increasingly black over the years and aquatic life in the river has disappeared.

It was only after Chandraveer Singh, chairman of NGO Doaba Paryavaran Samiti, got samples of the village water independently tested last year that the presence of extremely high content of heavy metals and compounds was discovered. “If these metals are ingested for long, it causes cancer,” says Singh, a retired scientist from Haryana State Pollution Control Board. He blames sugar and paper mills and slaughterhouses for discharging their effluents into the river without treating the waste.

He has petitioned the National Green Tribunal in this regard, but it has had little impact. Two months ago, six district magistrates in the region were fined Rs 5,000 each for failure to reply to NGT’s show-cause notice. But that is all.

More recently, the villagers believe, Baghpat’s chief medical officer (CMO) had filed an affidavit with the NGT that his probe found only one cancer patient in the entire Gangnauli village. But the villagers disagree. “The CMO has lied. Neither he nor his officials visited the village. I challenge the CMO or any outsider to drink the village water for a week,” says Rathi. A visit to the houses in this village throws up several cases of bed-ridden people who claim to be cancer-affected. Some of them immediately produced medical reports to prove it.

Some doctors do visit the village from time to time, but villagers allege that they never conduct any medical tests. “They just prescribe medicines for fever and headache,” says Rathi. With the government in denial mode, the affected villagers are left fighting their own battle. Daily-wage labourer Kishore Kumar is on the verge of selling his little house. His mother Bhagwan Dei, 60, has been fighting cancer for the last two years. Kumar has borrowed Rs 6 lakh from the local moneylenders for her treatment and is in not in a position to repay the loan.

Only a few houses away lives Sanjeev Rathi who lost his mother Ram Kali, 53, to cancer 10 days ago. With no cash in hand, Sanjeev was forced to sell two acres of his land for her treatment. The land which would have normally fetched Rs 25 lakh was sold for half the price.

Doctors told Sanjeev that contaminated water possibly led to the cancer. Yet, he and most others in the village have not learnt their lessons. Less than 10 per cent of the homes in this village are equipped with water purifiers.

The pradhan, too, is among those who have been callous. He says it would be unfair if he installed a purifier when most in his village can’t afford one. His own two-year-old nephew Shiva suffers from a deformed hand, apparently because of drinking the contaminated water.

Shiva’s condition is still better than many other children. Vikas Rathi, 22, began suffering from deformed bones 14 years ago. Today he cannot even perform his daily chores. His father Dharamveer Singh is yet to instal a water purifier. He has sent away his three other children to another village to save them from a similar fate. “But people even in that village are meeting a similar fate. I will now send my children to stay in Delhi with their maternal uncle,” says Dharamveer.

Nineteen-year-old Vikas’ mother Savita, however, realised the need for pure water. Once she learnt that water contamination was to blame for her son’s condition, she asked her husband, employed with the Delhi police, to provide a purifier. “My son was healthy and normal till he was three years. He began suffering from the deformities once she stopped breast-feeding  him and fed normal water and food,” says Savita.

A 25-lakh litre capacity water tank constructed in the village offers hope. Once operational, each family in the village would receive “pure” water at Re 1 per day. The general hand pumps and bore wells in the village draw water from 200-250 feet underground, considered impure. The new tank will supply water drawn from 600 feet below.
Even as the villagers feel that double the capacity tank would be required to serve all, they are sceptical about the water quality. Rathi says there are no funds to purify the water before supplying them to the village.