UCIL tail pond a short cut burial ground

About 8,000 population living in the villages Mabbuchinthala Palle, KK Kottala, Bhumaiajgari Palle, Kanumala Vari Palle, Rachagunta Palle, Kanam Palle, etc. paying costly lapses even their lives as death penalty due to soil and groundwater get polluted in large amount emanating from Tailing Pond constructed by Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) in N Tummalapalle village of Vemula Mandal YSR Kadapa district.

About 70 percent of people suffer from dreaded diseases like cancer, heart attacks tumors in the stomach, and throat, etc. Some people died of the same at an early age.

Though these villages are situated in Pulivendula constituency which is the birthplace of AP chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and also represented by him, problems were not addressed. This was happening due to the failure of UCIL management in adopting precautionary measures in the construction of the tailings pond. Many left the villages fearing an outbreak of diseases.

"Who will dare to stay in the villages while threatened with dreaded diseases? People are dying from mysterious diseases. Male have lost 'Sperm Prodictivity' while females suffer from undisclosed biological problems. We lost lively hood as agriculture operations were smashed due to the high amount of slurry mixture covered with chemicals entering into the fields from the tailing pond. Air in the surrounding areas vastly get polluted resulted people have developed serious respiratory problems".told S. Sankaraiah of Mabbuchinthala Palle village to Hans India.

The main occupation of people in this area is growing horticulture crops Banana Tomato, different vegetables, and vegetable leaves. There was some extent of cultivating like Red Chillis. Due to the flowing of highly contaminated water from tailing ponds, landowners turned as agriculture labor shifting to other areas.

"I have grown Banana crop in my 6 acres of land by investing around two Rs 2lakhs. When the crop become harvesting stage to my surprise I found strange black spots on the fruit gradually total fruit get discolored and lost quality against its original content in the fruit. This was all happened only because of contaminated water flowing into the fields from the UCIL tailing pond. Now I gave up on horticulture cultivation due to unbearable loss," Y Ramanujula Reddy of Rachagunta Palle village told.

When CH Harikiran was the Collector, with the directions of chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy along with scientists and members from Pollution Control Board (PCB) visited these villages interacted with the locals about their problems. On this occasion, PCB has issued notices to UCIL management seeking their reply over the issue. A committee was formed comprising members of PCB, UCIL, and Revenue, public representatives to study and address the problems.

hat is the use of forming committees? As there was no change witnessed in our destiny for several years. It has become a common scenario as several committees and activists from Civil Rights, Human Rights, Social Organisations leaders from political parties visiting us making as they make hue and cry posing for photographs to draw the attention media during their tours but the result is zero. They are turning mute spectators due to various reasons. We have been witnessing such kind of bitter experience for the last one and a half decades.

Women of our village are facing severe problems related to irregular menses period; Abortions become very common to pregnant women in our villages. People from other areas are not willing to marry either our boys or girls as they fear facing serious problems. We are living as live dead bodies(Pranamunna Savalu) said a 50 years old M Venkata Subbamma (not real name) of KK Kottala village on the condition of anonymity.

After identifying adequate Uranium deposits during its comprehensive survey at N Tummala Palle village in 2006 Automic Energy Commission of India (AECI) recommend the center establish the unit specifying that this mine has one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world.

Despite the UCIL having established its unit at N Tummala Palle village in 2007, started the operations after securing clearance from the center in 2012. It has established 1000 acres of land by investing Rs 11,000 crores on the total project. It is estimated to increase the uranium reserves from 49,000 tonnes to 85,000 by 2014.

About six kilometers length tail pond was constructed from the ore processing plant between the hills situated close to the KK Kottala village.

"Villagers alleged that UCIL management fails to keep its promise in providing employment to the locals and paying compensation to the displaced. Particularly it has neglected in maintaining greenery caused to people face serious health hards. We are not against establishment of unit by UCIL as failed in addressing our problems especially occurring dreadful diseases. If the situation continued for some time it will be difficult to find people without health hazards," K Venkataramana Reddy Bhumaiah gari Palle village.