The tribals of Jadugoda derive little benefit from the ore in their area, but suffer all the hazards
Eat uranium, breathe uranium, even drink uranium...even the blackest of twists to catchy slogans can't fully express the dark facts of life in Jadugoda. This area, in south Bihar's East Singhbhum district, has reserves of some of the world's finest uranium ore, magnesium diuraninite. But this feedstock for the country's nuclear reactors is also the bane of the tribals inhabiting the area, many of whom have been killed or crippled by untreated effluents and pollution from the mining facilities.
Laxmi Saman Muran, who resides in Chatikochaone of the worst-affected villageshas a one-year-old son. The first signs that something could be wrong with him was that his tear glands did not work. A medical check-up revealed that he had tuberculosis of the brain. Unable to bear the pain her child is sufferingand struggling to meet the high cost of his treatmentLaxmi almost wishes he were dead. It would be better now, she chokes out.
In nearby Bhatin and Tilaitant villages, both of which are within a kilometre of the Jadugoda mines, there is hardly a man, woman or child who is not suffering from radiation-related diseases like cancer, leukaemia, impotency, tuberculosis, or physical deformities. Constant fevers and pain is normal, says Surumajhian, a miner who has been running a temperature for the last six years.
Says Ghanshyam Baruli, president of the Jharkhand Unemployed Tribal Sangh, Recently, a Channel Four documentary for bbc confirmed our fears that due to the uranium radiation from the Jadugoda mines the women of the area find it difficult to bear children. And even if they do, the babies are born deformed. The deputy commissioner of the district, Sanjay Kumar, admits that there is a problem, and that he is aware of it.
The local population is almost entirely tribals, and about 50,000 people living within a 10-kilometre radius of the mines are said to be suffering from a host of radiation-related diseases. The reality is that the whole area has become unfit for habitation, says a doctor at the Tata Main Hospital at Jamshedpur.
Naturally, even the employees of the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (ucil) have not been spared. Every year, at least 10 residents of the ucil colony are referred to the Christian Medical College at Vellore, near Chennai. According to a recent survey conducted by the environment committee of the Bihar legislative council, there has been a disproportionate rise in radiation-related cancer cases in the area. In the last decade, about 100 persons in the ucil colony have died of cancer.
Again, that's not the only complication that can accrue from living in the danger zone. Almost 90 per cent of the residents suffer from acute arthritis. The baleful air plays no favouritesit is not only the miners, millhands and other hands-on workers who have become victims but the clerks, surveyors, drivers and even the teachers at the local school.
While conceding that those suffering from cancer are sent to Vellore, ucil chairman and managing director J.L. Bhasin says that the fatality figures are not large enough to be alarming. The rate of cancer deaths among our employees is well below the national average, he stresses.
But his company is widely held to be responsible for the degradation of the local people's health and the environment. Majhi Rasraj Tudu, a local politician and former minister, claims that before the arrival of ucil here in 1962, hardly any tribal had any health problem in Jadugoda. But today, see the effect: every family has a sick person, he says.
The tragedy doesn't end there; for the locals, it's as if their whole world has taken on a noxious, hellish tinge. Tudu elaborates: It is not only the human beings who have been hit hard but the uranium pollution has affected everything herethe plants, earth, water, fish, food... everything. Another local leader, Suresh Hansda, buttresses the point. Earlier, 20 quintals of paddy could be produced from an acre but today even five quintals is considered good, he points out. People also say that the free flow of untreated waste into the Subarnarekha river has killed off large quantities of fish.
Other water sources have also been contaminated. But without any other option, villagers continue to use the water from polluted ponds for bathing as well as for washing clothes and vessels. Even the well and handpumps from which we draw our drinking water are contaminated with radioactive wastes, which has turned the water blue, says Tuldi Marandi, an ailing miner.
One of the sources of contamination is the tailing, the leftover after the uranium has been extracted from the ore. The Atomic Energy Act clearly states that there should be no habitation within five kilometres of dumping grounds or tailing ponds. But as many as seven villages fall within a one-and-a-half kilometre radius of the danger zone. Further, there are no fences or signs demarcating the restricted area. This means that people like 16-year-old Mutru freely go in to gather fodder and firewood, and become potential victims to radiation.
Even if the families of ucil workers resided beyond the containment area, they would still be at risk. Employees at the facility are supposed to be supplied special non-porous uniforms, but are instead kitted out in ordinary cotton garments, which they wear home.
However, the locals have to contend with another danger. After the ore is mined and processed, it is sent to the Nuclear Fuel Complex (nfc) in Hyderabad. Following an outcry against the radioactivity in 1980, spent fuel is sent back to Jadugoda. Bhasin maintains that it is reprocessed here, but not many buy this. Since the tribals are seen as poor, illiterate and not politically active, the wastes are dumped here in Jadugoda, claims Vyas Tewari, a trade union leader.
Some years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission had proposed some drastic corrective steps. But the inhabitants of the area claim that it has remained only on paper, with nothing substantial coming of it. The report of the environment committee of the state legislative council described the situation at Jadugoda as deplorable. It then laid out some norms to be followed by ucil. For one, the effects and strength of the radiation was to be got surveyed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Institute, Trombay. Two, tailing ponds were to be carefully monitored and maintained properly.
The report also called for the affected tribals to be provided immediate succour under the national rehabilitation policy and added that they should be protected and extended proper medical facilities. If prompt steps to contain the deadly radiation were not taken, the committee held, it would be compelled to recommend the closure of the mines. Committee chairman Gautam Sagar Rana is categoric: ucil has not been following the guidelines formulated under the Atomic Energy Act to protect the innocent tribals residing near the mines, he says. That's a charge the company will have to live down.