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Unprotected Uranium killing the Jumbos in India
—After mankind, India’s nuke ambitions become lethal for wildlife too

By Makhdoom Babar Editor-in-Chief
(Additional reporting by Christina Palmer and Ajay Mehta in New Delhi)

While Indian government has raised the fears about safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, India’s own over-ambitious nuclear infrastructure has hit the snags as now its unprotected and unguarded nuclear set-up has also become a permanent threat, not only for the mankind but also for the innocent wildlife with scores of elephants and other animals constantly dying in forests of India’s Uranium capital, Jharkhand, reveal the latest investigations of The Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail’s investigations into the vulnerability of India’s nuclear and missile infrastructure, that were published in The Daily Mail’s edition of 14th of September, 2009, titled “Naked Nukes of India”, exposed the overall fragile state of affairs of India’s nuclear and missile setup. However the latest investigations in this direction indicate that the forests of Jharkhand have become death corridors for the wildlife over there, particularly the Jumbos, the Elephants, consuming water that is contaminated with Uranium radioactive material.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that a lot of animals are dying in mysterious circumstance in the forests of Jharkhand but nothing has been done in this direction by the authorities concerned and rather a shady state of affairs is reported be prevailing in the area in this regard for the past few years. These investigations indicate that that these animals, with elephants being on top, are dying in mysterious condition because they have been consuming water and grass etc, having uranium related contamination.

The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that the East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, bordering West Bengal and Orissa, is the capital of India’s nuclear energy programme. It is rich in uranium that is mined by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) and converted later into nuclear fuel for the reactors.

The raw uranium from the mines is processed by the UCIL in Jadugoda, a small town located at a distance of 30 km from district headquarters Jamshedpur. This entire region is India’s only source of natural uranium to feed the country’s heavy-water nuclear reactors. According to local officials, of India’s annual requirement of 300 tonnes of yellowcake, at present, UCIL in East Singhbhum produces 220 tonnes. Massive expansion is underway in the area to increase the production to the required 300 tonnes.

East Singhbhum has seven uranium mines and two processing mills that function under the UCIL. The UCIL campus serves as the headquarters for the mines, and itself has a processing unit and the oldest mines in the region. The Bhatin and Narwapahar mines are 2 km and 10 km respectively from Jadugoda. Turamdih, which has a mine as well as a processing mill, is 20 km from Jadugoda. The Mohuldih and Banduhurang mines are 5 km away from Turamdih. Bagjata is around 30 km from Jadugoda.

The Daily Mail’s investigation team learnt that the radiation was a big problem in the area, yet it was unaddressed by the government. According to The Daily Mail’s findings,on Aug. 16, 2008, a new tailings pipeline burst near Jaduguda caused a uranium mill tailings spill that reached nearby homes and forests and it further got mixed into certain natural water channels that flow into different forests and lakes in the forests.

While UCIL authorities admitted that radioactive waste had spilled into villages and forests, they maintained that it would not pose any health threats to villagers or to the animals. “We are monitoring the situation. Our scientists are taking samples from villages,” P.V. Dubey, UCIL spokesperson told media in June 2008. “There will be no negative impact on human beings. The waste has been neutralised by the large amount of water,” he added.

Residents of nearby villages stopped using water from their ponds and wells, fearing health problems. Villagers have also complained that the nuclear waste had destroyed a large amount of crops. “The waste that spilled from the tailing pond has destroyed our crops. If this continues, there might not be any crops in the coming years,” said Kannhu Murmu of Tilaitand village. Some experts also feel that the radioactive waste would also have a harmful impact on the soil for years. “The waste will get mixed with soil and in the long run would pose health-related problems to both human beings and animals,” said Nitish Priyadarshi, a local geologist.

The Daily Mail’s investigations further disclose that in a shocking revelation, a team of the Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) had come out with some bare truths regarding health hazards faced by miners working in the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) in the form of a detailed survey report. The survey was undertaken by the organisation affiliated to Germany-based International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in association with Jharkhandi Organisation Against Radiation (JOAR).

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the UCIL’s lethargic approach and inability to handle such a sensitive programme of handling Uranium can be judged that the UCIL’s pipelines, carrying Uraniumand that are always lying in open, have a history of leakages and bursts. According to these investigations, on April 10, 2007, a new tailings pipeline burst near Jaduguda caused a uranium mill tailings spil to a very large area and also got mixed to different natural and manmade water reservoirs and channels. According to UCIL, the spill was caused from damage to the rubber lining of the tailings pipeline “by a wooden log left inside the pipe during replacement”, and comprised 1.5 tons of solids and 20 cubic metres of liquid; the spilled material was contained within the earthen bund constructed beside the channel and did not reach any water body or public domain. Similarly, earlier on December 25, 2006, the tailings pipeline carrying uranium mill tailings from the Jaduguda uranium mill to tailings dam No. 3 broke, spreading tailings into a tributary of river Subranarekha. The findings into the matter further indicate that on Feb. 17, 2007, two NGOs - Friends of South Asia (FOSA) and Association for India’s Development (AID) - submitted a petition to the UCIL and the Department of Atomic Energy demanding an investigation into the accident and seeking full remediation. The petition was signed by hundreds of individuals from around the world including the animals rights activists and wildlife protectors.

According to UCIL, the spill was caused from damage of the rubber lining and metal of the tailings pipeline “due to prolonged use”, and comprised 6-8 tons of solids and 60 cubic metres of liquid.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal further that in 2001 and 2002, Hiroaki Koide from the Research Reactor Institute at Kyoto University performed field trips to monitor environmental impacts of the Jadugoda uranium mine. He monitored external gamma dose rate, radionuclide concentrations in soil, and radon concentration in air. His results are compiled in a report available for download. The main conclusions are:

The contamination from the uranium mine has spread in Jadugoda: The external gamma dose rate exceeds 1 mSv/y in the villages, and reaches 10 mSv/y around the tailing ponds. The soil surrounding the tailings ponds is contaminated by uranium. Particularly high contamination levels were found in the village of Dungridih that borders tailings pond No.1. In other villages, no serious contamination was found.

Radon emanated from tailings ponds etc spreads contamination. Waste rock from the mine used for construction material spreads contamination.

Other findings include:

The No.1 tailings pond shows contamination by cesium. This fact shows that radioactivity was brought in from a source other than an uranium mine.

Product uranium concentrate is dealt with carelessly and was found dispersed at Rakha Mine railway station.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal further that The River Subarnarekha literally translates into “streak of gold”. But the only streaks in this river are untreated sewage, industrial and mineral wastes and unbelievably, radioactive wastes, affecting human as well as animal health. A lot of forest area of Jrakhand gets water from this resource.

Radioactive wastes in Indian rivers is an undocumented environmental tragedy in India

This once-pleasing river originates in the Chotanagpur plateau of Jharkhand in eastern India and finally enters the Bay of Bengal after a 452 km journey. Along the way, it courses a picturesque countryside, plunging 74 metres at Hundrugargh.

Though there are 15 water quality monitoring stations, the Subarnarrekha is a receptacle of wastewater (urban as well as industrial) from three major townships - Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Ghatsila. Organic pollution loads from the countryside pollute equally yet no one ever cared to carry out tests from the water reservoirs and channels, available in the forests for the wild life and the grass that is available for their grazing.

Uranium ore tailings from the Jaduguda mines operated by Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL), causes various degrees of radioactivity along a 100s of kms stretch. This has resulted in documented cases of deformities among human beings, but, the Indian scenario being what it is, precious little has been done for them. The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that LOCAKADAISICAL attitude of the Indian Government is all the more evident from the lack of safety precautions at the sites. Just last year, 2008, the pipe that carries radioactive waste from the processing mill to the tailing pond at Jadugoda, burst near Dugridi village. Massang Soren, the village sarpanch, told the investigating journalists, “No UCIL official turned up until we started protesting. Our fields were flooded with uranium waste and we could see the danger we faced. The paddy field turned yellow and then red but no one came,” said a local adding, “For at least three months the entire village reported various kinds of health problems. Everyone in the village developed blisters on the soles of their feet and these could not be cured easily.” The villagers complained that the UCIL did not give them any assistance to clean the water.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the biggest victims of this nuclear waste in Jharkhand’s forests are the Jumbos. These investigations reveal that just during the last six years, at least 82 jumbos have died in the forests of Jharkhand, under mysterious circumstances. In Jharkhand, the elephant population has declined from 772 to 622 in the current census conducted in May this year. However, there has never been any autopsy of any jumbo that dies in this period of time while the statements of Forest department officials over the death of every elephant were found sufficient by both the media and the government. The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that as a routine, the forest department officials, on every occasion when an elephant dies in the forests of Jharkhand they have three readymade excuses for the death of the elephant. The forest department officials either accuse the poachers or the villagers and if nothing else, they attribute the death of the elephant to accidental electrocution and the matter is hushed up then and there, without any formal investigations into the “actual cause of death of the elephant. The Daily Mail’s investigations also indicate that in April 2007, an elephant died in a very mysterious condition in Huntar village, 45 km from Ranchi, known for receiving massive uranium contamination.

The villagers of Huntar village told The Daily Mail that the elephant, part of a herd of 18 elephants, started behaving abnormally and died within a few hours. They added that the cause of death could be the pesticides sprinkled on nearby crops. However, this time the officials opted to go for an autopsy of the jumbo but even before the autopsy report would have come, it was declared by the officials that the jumbo was poisoned by poachers or villagers. “We are not sure but we strongly believe the elephant was poisoned to death by villagers as the autopsy reports was also not very clear in this regard,” asserted an official when contacted. “No external injury was found on the elephant. Veterinary doctors couldn’t reveal the exact cause of death of jumbo,” said S.B. Gaikwad, a forest conservator. It remains a fact that during the last six years, over 70 elephants have died in the area due to Uranium contamination while the officials give different reasons like electrocution and poaching.

The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that during 2006-2007, an Australian biology researcher Dr. Trevor Tate from Adelaide, Australia who was doing carrying out some field research in a forest of Ranchi, happened to see a dead elephant. He, by bribing some officials of forest department and Birsa Munda Zoological Park, Ranchi, managed get a sample of the dead body of the jumbo. He took the sample along with him back to Australia and got a detailed autopsy report that indicated that the jumbo had died of Uranium contamination, that he caught, most probably after consuming uranium contaminated water from forest of Ranchi. Dr. Tate says that he sent a report in this regard to Indian government and World Wildlife’s India chapter but he received no response from both and later he also did not pursue the matter as it was not his specific area of research. But Dr. reveals that the officials of India’s forest department and personnel at Birsa Munda Zoological Park, Ranchi have connections with smugglers of Ivory and taking advantage of shut eyes over the issue, they manage to sell the tooth and nails as well as bones of the dead jumbos to these underworld Ivory merchants and later report that the jumbo was killed by poachers.

The global community and particularly the animals’ rights activists and the activists of the wild life protection bodies are alarmed with this state of affairs in India. They argue that with such a pathetic setup of nuclear material and nuclear wastes, how can India be taken seriously regarding the managing of an over ambitious nuclear programe. The have also expressed their utmost dismay and shock over the US government that without going into the details of such matters, has signed nuclear deal with such an irresponsible nuclear State.

http://dailymailnews.com/0210/08/FrontPage/FrontPage1.htm

Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane -- So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune -- Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen -- Beautiful faces and music so serene -- So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came -- You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight -- But break our illusions and help us Be the light -- Message by Michael Pinder

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February 2010 Archive