Ankleshwar

I couldn't take it for one day, yet people live there all all their lives. Ankleshwar Junction, comprised of seven towns, is in the heart of the Gujarat Industrial region. I went there because I had seen photo's from my friend Srinivas. They depicted a polluted industrial wasteland. They barely scratched the surface.

In the mid 1970's the Government of Gujarat decided they needed to spur economic growth in the region. To do this, put simply, they used eminent domain and bought the land from the farmers for about 1 - 2 Rupees per square foot. Land the farmers had been farming or generations of course, and was worth about 10 - 12 rupees per square foot. Some farmers have yet to receive the money. The Government then gave subsidies to corporations to locate there. And even though environmental regulations exist they were widely ignored. Chemical plants, die plants, pharmaceuticals, fertilizer plants, and many others sprang up. Workers came in from other Indian states taking jobs from the locals, and since the locals now had no means of income they began the downward cycle into extreme poverty. 40% of the region lives on less then a dollar a day. Meanwhile the factories got built. More and more of them. Hazardous waste piling up and being dumped randomly. Chemicals of all types sinking into the ground water. Smoke billowing into the air. It goes unchecked to this day.

Yesterday even. I met a man by the name of Rohit who has been investigating the pollution since 1995. (Nobody even thought about it for 20 years). He's been filing reports and court battles regularly since then. The Government will hold public hearings, promise reform and do nothing. Corporations agree to fix filtration systems and don't. Rohit took me around to several of the worst sites. Contaminated water bubbling up in the middle of a crop field. Children playing in black water, men from the die factories whose skin is now permanently red, or blue, or yellow. Broken pipelines leaking contaminated water that is supposed to flow directly into the sea 20 kilometers away. Air that burns your nose at certain times of the day when chemicals are released. A constant stench of pollution.

I met several people who told me there personal stories. Children with asthma. High cancer rates. Health care is expensive. Crops not growing due to contaminated fields. I've never been in a place like this. It feels deadly just standing in town. The chemicals seem to permeate into everything. I left earlier then planned because I couldn't take it and I could leave. The people who live there are too poor to leave. They drink the water. They eat the crops. They breathe the air. The government of India is allowing them to die.

And unknowingly, we buy the jeans died blue with the dies made there. We eat food grown with fertilizer made there. Take pharmaceuticals whose components are made there. I don't know what the solution is to Gujarat. Except removing everyone from there and giving them the resources to start over and condemning the land. But what's happening there is wrong. And just because it's not next door to me or you doesn't make it any less wrong.

Benjamin