Jadugoda:The nuclear graveyard
photo by Chinky Shukla (Freelance)
Every year countless number of children are being affected by the nuclear radiation in Jadugoda. Dhanram Gop, 13, is mentally weak and has congenital deformity since birth.
Laxmi Das, 42, lost eight children within a week of their births. Her ninth child, Gudia, survived but succumbed to cerebral palsy. After fighting for survival for eleven years, Gudia passed away recently.
Two-year-old Babua of Ho tribe, who died a sudden death, is buried in the backyard of his house with his hands in a pot of brass and a glass, in accordance with tribal customs
Villagers of the Ho tribe lamenting the death of the young one in a village of Jadugoda.
Rakesh Gop, 11, suffers from mental retardation and has weak limbs. His father, Bisnu Gop claims that they haven’t received the govt. pension for handicaps even once.
20 days old, baby Maneesha, was grossly underweight and weighed merely a kilogram. Her mother, Aarti Parta, gave birth to three kids before her, but none survived. Their house is in Telaitand village, which is within 100 meters of the nuclear tailing structure. The baby-girl passed away two days after this photo was taken.
The mill complex of The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) at Jadugoda where the uranium is extracted from the ore.
14 year old Parvati, of Bango village, has congenital deformity of enlarged chest. Her father worked as a laborer in the construction of the tailing pond. He blames himself for his daughter’s condition.
Suffering from congenital deformity, Mohan, 19, has six toe-fingers. His father, a miner in the uranium mines at Jadugoda, died of lung cancer.
The tailing pipe the little girls are sitting on carries radioactive waste from the mines to the tailing pond.
UCIL has erected signboards to warn people about the pond, which can be seen in the background
Seven years old Babloo has been bed-ridden since birth. He suffers from Cerebral Palsy. His father, Bukan Singh Bangkira, works in UCIL as a uranium miner.
The local villagers can be seen fishing in a pond close to the tailing structure in Jadugoda. Environmental groups say UCIL, the mining company, is polluting the groundwater by dumping radioactive waste in the tailing ponds.