There are many mothers like Sumitra in the villages within the five-kilometre radius of the mining area who have lost their children.

More than 16 per cent of them die within a year of birth and 47 per cent women undergo abortions in the 15 villages around the mining area, according to a survey conducted by Joar, a voluntary organisation headed by Ghanshyam Birulee.

Though the mining being done by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited has played an instrumental role in bringing India on the map of the nuclear powers of the world, it is devastating the poor tribal population in the vicinity.

More than 80 per cent of the inhabitants suffer from radiation-related diseases. A visit to some villages around the mining area unfolds a dismal tale.

Ramdeo Kalindi (45), a temporary miner, has been in bed for 20 days. A team of UCIL doctors declared he was suffering from malaria. But the drugs prescribed by them has failed to have any impact on Ramdeo who is not even in a position to speak. His 22-year-old son, Tapan Kalindi, died one and half years ago of a similar ailment. His daughter, too, is afflicted by what the locals say is a “mysterious” disease.

Radiation-related diseases, which the UCIL authorities don’t readily admit, have caused some bizarre health hazards in the area. One comes across a large number of people who either have just three fingers in one hand or six or even seven fingers in another. There are others who have no fingers at all.

Apart from the physical deformities, many of them suffer from mental deformities, too. Sudarshan of Dongridih is 10 years old but does not respond to external stimuli and is unable to express his needs. He is a burden on his poor parents because he still relieves himself in bed. Dongridih and 14 other villages around the mining area have more than 200 children like Sudarshan.

The Environment Committee of the Bihar House which visited the area and probed the condition of the villagers about three years ago, made three major recommendations. They were:
Evacuate people living within five kilometres of the mines and its tailing pond and arrange for their rehabilitation;
Use covered pipes and not open drains for carrying nuclear wastes to treatment plants and
Put up notice boards to highlight the radioactivity hazards.

The committee had also suggested that an “expert medical team” be constituted to study the impact of radioactivity on the people around the mining area and advise remedies. But it appears that UCIL has simply ignored the committee’s recommendations. It has neither done anything to relocate and rehabilitate the 30,000 people living in the 15 villages nor has it set up an expert medical team to study the nature of the diseases afflicting the poor tribals.

The UCIL management is not even ready to admit that the people are suffering from any radiation- related diseases.

“I don’t think that radiation from mining has caused diseases among the people living around the uranium mining area”, said the UCIL managing director R Kumar. “We can not go by hearsay,” he said, adding: “Some NGOs like Joar are spreading canards. Uranium mining is of national importance, you know,” he explains.

But Mr Kumar has no answer to why the UCIL has not formed a team of expert doctors to study the impact of radioactivity in the mining area.

What amazes visitors to these villages is that the goats don’t produce milk. Kendu fruits growing in trees around the mining area don’t bear seeds. And even the fishes in the ponds have no tails. They have unnatural swellings all over that look like bruises. There is, of course, a notice board near the tailing pond (in which the waste water from the mining and milling area is released) which says: “Don’t use the water.”

The study conducted by Joar and Birsa, another voluntary organisation headed by Deven Hansda, have also found that six per cent of the children born in the 15 villages are handicapped.

“The most disturbing trend is that UCIL is not paying any attention to the havoc that radiation from mining has been causing in the area,” says Ghanshyam Birulee, president of Joar.

Mr Birulee’s father, Jairam Birulee, was a miner in the UCIL and died of a “mysterious” disease at 50. His mother, Dama Kui, also met a similar fate at a young age. “You will not find anyone living beyond 55/60 in any of the 15 villages around the mining area,” Mr Birulee claimed.

Shockingly, Chatikucha, Tilaiya Tar, Dongridih and several other villages around the mining and milling area have hundreds of “wives deserted by their husbands”. “It is because women married outside the limits of the mining area were incapable of delivering children. …their husbands found them infertile and deserted them”, explained Mr Birulee.

The affected villagers admitted that they were unable to find grooms for their daughters outside the limits of the mining area for the “people of other areas strongly believe that the girls living in the vicinity of the uranium mining area are infertile.” Members of the Oraon, Hoe and Santhal tribes inhabit the 15 villages. These poor and helpless people are paying with their lives to make India a nuclear energy-rich country. “It is like sitting in a place surrounded by fire on all sides”, said Mr Birulee.