Word: punjab
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...scorching June afternoon in Jhajjal village in southwestern Punjab, elderly men have gathered in a communal courtyard to quell the boredom of the long afternoon with a game of cards. The cotton crop has been sown, and the farmers have a few weeks' holiday before they must return to their fields. As with most small villages, everyone knows everyone else here, and the conversation centers around marriages and births. But these usually mundane topics have taken on a tragic twist, involving couples failing to conceive, children being born with genetic disorders, people of all ages succumbing to cancer. Nadar Singh...
India's rural activists for years have blamed the overuse and misuse of pesticides for a pervasive health crisis that afflicts villages like Jhajjal across the cotton belt of Punjab. Evidence continues to mount that the problems are severe. Last month, a government-funded study revealed that chemical fertilizers and pesticides have seeped into the groundwater in four Punjab districts and are causing an alarming array of ecological and health problems including cancer and mental retardation. A June 2005 study by the new Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment found residues of between 6 and 13 pesticides in blood...
...Punjab's lethal pesticide legacy can be traced to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and '70s, when high-yielding varieties of cotton were introduced in the region's relatively arid Malwa belt. Initially the move was successful as yields and prices were good. But farmers soon discovered that the cotton was highly susceptible to pests, and ended up spending huge amounts on pesticides. As the pests, such as pink bollworm and aphids, became increasingly resistant to chemical spraying, farmers reacted by laying on even more, sometimes mixing two or more products against all scientific evidence. The region virtually became...
...push them to spray more, and also blame the government's failure to change its policies after the harmful side effects of the Green Revolution began showing. "We know what we are doing is not sustainable," says Nadar Singh, the chief of Jhajjal. "The agriculture department and the PAU [Punjab Agricultural University, which pioneered the Green Revolution]should come up with an alternative...
...celebratory gunfire was heard in Karachi; in the streets of Rawalpindi, Musharraf's hometown, PPP supporters danced in the streets. Prior to the election, many Pakistanis said they feared the voting would be rigged to ensure most incumbents won. But PML-N party candidates swept to convincing wins in Punjab, Pakistan's largest province. Results from Sindh province, a PPP stronghold, are not complete and analysts expect further gains for the party as more votes are counted...