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Many people, says freelance photographer Rana Chakraborty, recall the disaster in 1984 at Bhopal, the capital of India’s Madhya Pradesh state, when a Union Carbide plant leaked tons of the toxic gas Methyl
Isocyanate.
Three thousand people were reported killed almost immedialy and estimates of those injured rose to more than half a million.
Less known, says Rana, is the current fight of local people in Medok (also known
at Medak), north of Hyderabad, the state capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Once famous for more than 20 huge natural lakes the area is now infamous for water pollution, say the people who live there.
They claim that the large pharmaceutical companies in the area – it is known as the “pharma capital” of India – are poisoning the water resources with their waste.
“Health studies done by some international NGOs, like Greenpeace, and some local NGOs suggest the area is a hub of toxic poisoning,” says Rana from Calcutta, whose wide-ranging career includes work for national and international newspapers, magazines and web sites and documentary film.
“Cancer in the area increased in 20 years. Cases of miscarriages are a common event. Some girls cannot find marriage partners because the locality is known for sterile women,” continues Rana.
In April this year, Rana visited a public hearing in the village of Jinnaram being held on the direction of India’s Supreme Court to allow local people to put their case. The images he took there and in the surrounding area make up his gallery on the theme of water.
“But the hearing was a farce,” says Rana, as villagers tried unsuccessfully to
present what they said were samples of polluted soil and water from the area.
Rana says a local farmer Syed Akbartold him: “I have five acres of land. It is
impossible to produce even grass at my land, due to toxic poisoning. I have to
go other villages and cities for work. I lost everything and thus I am not afraid
of anything - not even the government or the police, in raising my voice against
these industries”.
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Medok, the neighboring district of Hyedrabad the state capital of Andhra Pradesh, was full of water resources even a few years back. There were more than twenty natural lakes like this – Gandi Cheru lake.
The majority of dwellers here are farmers, shepherds & fishermen. All are completely dependent on this water, for their life and livelihood.
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