Bhakra dam at 740ft is one of the highest in Asia. When it got commissioned in 1963, it changed the fortunes of the farmers in the region, and little did they know, lives of their future generations. The farm productivity of the irrigated land increased by 39% to 43%, compared to the rainfed plots. Increase in agriculture productivity however came at a very heavy price. People of the region literally paid for it with their lives. Cancer rates sky rocketed in 30 years, so much so that Punjab is now called cancer capital of India.
Intensive agriculture, aided by canal based irrigation, has enabled not only multiple crop cycles, but agriculture of unsustainable crops like paddy, resulting in tremendous stress on the soil and water. Soil is sought to be rejuvenated by use of increasing quantity of chemical fertilizers, where as water is increasingly getting pumped from the ground, getting depleted at an ever increasing rate. Further, to protect the yield, farmers take no chances, and poison the produce and the soil, with pesticides. Concoction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and multiple crop cycles, is resulting in dangerous levels of harmful chemicals in the blood of the locals.
Punjab has only 2.5% of total agriculture land in the country but uses more than 18% of all the pesticides used in the country!
South of Sutlej River in Punjab, called Malwa region, also called cotton belt - Batinda, Mansa, Faridkot, Ferozpur, Muktsar, Moga, Barnala, Sangroor - is the worst effected by cancer. Other regions of Punjab - Majha (North of Beas and Sutlej till Jehlum) and Doaba (Between Beas and Sutlej) - are fast catching up on this dubious distinction.
Irrigation enabled green revolution. However, in the scramble that ensued, short term objectives got way too much weightage, compared to long term and sustainable objectives. The problems range from the abuse of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in poisoning of the soil and the produce, to unsustainable crop cultivation. Cultivation of paddy is resulting in water logging and soil turning saline, in places that are close to the canals, and dangerously depleted ground water table in other places.
To think of it, Bhakra Dam, besides many other ingredients, is a key input to the "harvest of cancer" in the region.
Intensive agriculture, aided by canal based irrigation, has enabled not only multiple crop cycles, but agriculture of unsustainable crops like paddy, resulting in tremendous stress on the soil and water. Soil is sought to be rejuvenated by use of increasing quantity of chemical fertilizers, where as water is increasingly getting pumped from the ground, getting depleted at an ever increasing rate. Further, to protect the yield, farmers take no chances, and poison the produce and the soil, with pesticides. Concoction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and multiple crop cycles, is resulting in dangerous levels of harmful chemicals in the blood of the locals.
Punjab has only 2.5% of total agriculture land in the country but uses more than 18% of all the pesticides used in the country!
South of Sutlej River in Punjab, called Malwa region, also called cotton belt - Batinda, Mansa, Faridkot, Ferozpur, Muktsar, Moga, Barnala, Sangroor - is the worst effected by cancer. Other regions of Punjab - Majha (North of Beas and Sutlej till Jehlum) and Doaba (Between Beas and Sutlej) - are fast catching up on this dubious distinction.
Irrigation enabled green revolution. However, in the scramble that ensued, short term objectives got way too much weightage, compared to long term and sustainable objectives. The problems range from the abuse of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in poisoning of the soil and the produce, to unsustainable crop cultivation. Cultivation of paddy is resulting in water logging and soil turning saline, in places that are close to the canals, and dangerously depleted ground water table in other places.
To think of it, Bhakra Dam, besides many other ingredients, is a key input to the "harvest of cancer" in the region.
