[Assam] From TOI

[Chan Mahanta]

Pesticide menace cripples Punjab village
26 Aug 2007, 0136 hrs IST,Priya Yadav,TNN



GIANA (TALAWANDI SABO): Young children with tufts 
of gray hair, water that burns the insides as it 
goes down the throat, entire villages suffering 
from a variety of cancerous ailments. That's what 
unfettered and unmonitored use of pesticides has 
done in a Punjab struggling with unsustainable 
agriculture.

Giana, for instance, is a prime and rather 
poignant example of what has and can go wrong, 
crying as it is for urgent state intervention. 
One just has to see Manjit to understand the 
crisis. At first glance, the 11-year-old boy 
looks like an old man, his grey hair and failing 
eyesight adding to that disturbing trend. It's 
only when he comes nearer that his real age 
shows, startling strangers and visitors. In his 
village, though, people have got used to his 
freak looks. After all, there are many children 
in Giana who have grown ⤗old' much before their 
time. "Our children begin greying after three," 
said Banta Singh, 30 â¤" again, with lots of 
white in his mane. "Youth has passed us by."

Villagers in this ghost town are still a bit 
befuddled, but experts blame the indiscriminate 
use of pesticides that eventually seep into food 
and contaminate underground water as the root 
cause triggering this abnormality.
"Water across the state, either due to pollution 
or excessive use of pesticides, has become so 
harmful that we have launched a scientific 
investigation to study if it is leading to 
changes in the DNA," said J S Thakur, an 
assistant professor at Chandigarh PGI's community 
medicine department.

Rajesh Kumar, who heads the department, added, 
"Indiscriminate use of pesticides, absolute 
ignorance about the damage caused with faulty 
pesticide storage and use, and disposal of empty 
pesticide containers are major factors 
contributing to incidence of cancer here. Very 
high levels of heavy metals were found in water 
and vegetables in that region." There isn't yet 
an exact figure, but doctors at the premier 
institute do agree that an alarmingly high number 
of cancer cases, queuing up at OPDs, come from 
the Talwandi Sabo-Mansa belt. An extensive 
research is now on in PGI to understand the 
problem and find out if any gene mutation is 
occurring.

This has also intrigued experts abroad. "A team 
of doctors from England has already taken samples 
and pictures of at least seven of our students," 
said Ranbir Singh, a teacher in the only 
government high school in the village. "There is 
a huge problem somewhere."

There is. When the school bell rings end of 
classes for the day, a horde of students with 
grey heads rush out. "My hair started turning 
white when I was eight years old," said 
Ramandeep, patting her head as if for an answer. 
"Now 80% is white," the girl, just 12, added. 
"The only person who really gets bothered is my 
mother who fears that getting a match outside the 
village would be a problem."