Punjab in the Grip of an Ecological Disaster: Is there a Solution?
Punjab, the land of five rivers, is facing one of the worst crisis in its history. Its youth is trapped in drugs, marginal farmers are trapped in bank loans and are forced to commit suicides, the financial situation is so dismal that the State is in a debt trap, and the moral fabric of vibrant Punjabi society is under attack by internal and external contradictions. However, I am not going to focus on the obvious but will like to investigate the long term effects of Ecological Disaster hovering over Punjab. During 1990s, when our research group in Guru Nanak Dev University was sanctioned a research project by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to undertake a survey for Environmental Radiation Health Hazards to population of Punjab, we could never imagine the consequences would be so alarming? Our aim was to assess the environmental radiation dose to inhabitants due to Radon gas emanating from the soil; the source of this gas being radioactive Uranium in soil and groundwater. We reported that in Malwa belt, the radiation dose is 20% higher compared with other districts of Punjab. However, there was no imminent danger to public health due to presence of indoor Radon in homes.
