Confronted with reports villages near Uranium Corp. of India Ltd.’s mines have unusually high numbers of physically deformed people, Chairman Diwakar Acharya said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those guys are imported from elsewhere, ok?”
A Bloomberg News report on July 9 highlighted the struggles of the locals with disease and early deaths — and the suspicion they shared with some environmental activists that the health conditions are linked to mining waste.
Acharya dismissed as biased any findings of a correlation between the mines and deformities in nearby villages.
Activists and doctors come with an agenda to Jadugora, a town of about 19,500 people in eastern Jharkhand state that’s home to the company’s main operations, he said in a July 14 interview.
“See, what happens is, you say you are a specialist and you’ll come and treat,” Acharya said at Uranium Corp.’s headquarters. “But all you do is, you are convinced UCIL is evil and you have come here only with the sole motive of finding reasons which would validate your preconceived notions.”
Uranium Corp. sends its security officers to monitor attempts by outsiders to examine villagers, Acharya said, explaining it was a necessary step for collecting information about alleged health problems. He was skeptical when told Bloomberg reporters had met a dozen families stricken by deformities, and in particular reviewed the medical records of four children and interviewed their doctors.
“Maybe,” Acharya said. “Your word, my word.”
‘Healthier Environment’
Company-backed surveys show that compared with outlying areas, “there’s no change in disease pattern around Jadugora,” said Acharya, 57, who started at the company as a mine manager in 1988. “If at all, it is better because of the healthier environment here.”
Photographs in an Indian newspaper of deformed children in the villages around Jadugora led the Jharkhand High Court in February to demand an explanation from Uranium Corp. and government agencies. The High Court wrote in its order “the health problems related to uranium mining are affecting the indigenous people disproportionately in and around the uranium mining operational area,” with as many as 50,000 people at risk. Children living near the mines are “born with swollen heads, blood disorders and skeletal distortions,” it said.
Ananda Sen, the lawyer appointed by the court to review the case, said he’s considering asking a judicial panel led by the state’s chief justice to order an independent inquiry. First, he needs to “study some more on the health aspect and all these things,” he said in a July 14 interview.
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