Life at Ground Zero

{
  "type": "gallery",
  "attrs": {
    "title": "Something"
  },
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "paragraph",
      "content": [
        {
          "text": "Put your pictures here",
          "type": "text"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12867",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/XmebYJHdG0xtpzfG5QBFtFoZXaV4vyDb7fbyCXLDwFVHqxFigNwconkaXuHXQCRYNqMHoIcYJEbyHUGf1xj_OyIWKA=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Anjali Gogali, a young resident of Pokhran, continues to complain about noise caused by the testing of missiles at the Pokhran firing range.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 720,
        "id": "12868",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/GK-WPE3G6xXvSCpu9RLrZzw9JB5LsAY9a2m4AHLnUF1kHl52vvzpczRaiu2PLmCxnRSainXiCQRptG_rp7R0nBollok=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Irfan Shakur Khan, ten years old, has experienced mental disability since birth. “There are many such children in Chacha village. This has started happening quite recently. We think the nuclear test could be the reason for their unfortunate condition,” Irfan’s mother said.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12869",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/C8blQAMEr8-OmJWekE1Y9apz4lIn4YGModGjWmdiH56DXE8PyBXAtZvhNhUihqU9p6i4pGv1t2TGnhOYRarA9uwk3Q=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Bhoma Ram, who is 15 years old, was born a year after the second nuclear test and has been crippled since birth. According to him, he does not get a handicap pension, but he recently received a wheelchair from the Bhagirath trust, which he uses to go to school.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12872",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/cwt0T1kjfke2j2fzna3VTtceJpn75HHYnyuzKumGY3-p2Kp9so4hFvYF3-7NKMs_0Xh2jGc0dCObziK8jLgSCM19RA=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Nainu Devi, a 31-year-old from the village of Odhaniya, suffered from breast cancer. Her husband, Bijaram Pawar, is a labourer. He sold the land he owned for her treatment at a hospital in Bikaner. They attempted to have her admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, but the hospital refused to admit her because she had already undergone surgery at a private hospital.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12871",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/VnDjpdBlCUOI02tloV1aQdZcWepG7d8MNJygwVFBh_rrI0AUHMfDHLvm1e9Zku58xfyv--qPR0jkj0_18nC3-lmf=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Pokhran contains one of the largest firing ranges of the Indian Army. It functions as a practice site for the firing of Bofors missile. According to Nathu Ram Bishnoi, the village head of Khetolai, livestock that entered the range while grazing nearby have become casualties, as have the shepherds tending to them.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 740,
        "id": "12873",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/h2NN1GlWnVDSbwauNxzbj6d32z7oWCiaMMtV0bEwE-3GN5PTo5iTSQuYjpiO1LhXru_wCbaT8ZSojUZwubxDvoNtn0k=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Twelve-year-old Neeraj Bishnoi, a resident of the village of Khetolai, has a brain tumour. He lives with his uncle, who has spent around ten lakh rupees on his treatment. Neeraj’s father died six months after the 1998 nuclear test, from blood cancer.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 720,
        "id": "12875",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/i5AhzBNCS66OLBYDrWu2pWYnIpr_tyQ_PM9K8CgbRoD55PIc8IuaXyrIljJkfAvU5cNnRyYak4qG60RWRV0vD-dGzg=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Ayesha Khatun Mohd is seven years old, and has had mental disabilities and extreme stiffness in her bones since birth. According to her father, these medical issues began when she was only three months old. She is only able to drink milk. “We cannot feed her anything else as she has a very weak digestive system,” he said. “We had another daughter before Ayesha, who had the same problem. She died when she was just one year old.”",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12876",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/UY_3oi2Q3GEU5siIbmqQmqGH_7wW0lOJ1HSLKzYGGhqQf4nrU-WSiHfqYYUjb7XeFa_wyeOkIymSAnP4IYplAbs0=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Fifteen-year-old Sharifa Jan Mohammad, has had mental disabilities since birth, and needs someone to attend to her at all times.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 720,
        "id": "12878",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/BWnqt4bpJV-xW_Snv704bWP5374rVi2hyDUhQS9EnEa7Mol2ZXhNH7L-kyY3xx1J2EVtZjmmHh_qi3OFmmzDMK8q=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Bhagwati Bishnoi, a resident of Khetolai, died within a year after the 1998 nuclear test, from blood cancer.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12879",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/mUIet7mm1EVP-VsXTJiWRsWSMxQ5E53w6mzthiWXk3jqT51POuDTfZIAG89W50YA-ibe4t6Jky7sKngRmQj21ZnT=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Two decades after the nuclear test, residents of Pokhran and its surrounding regions are still bearing the brunt of the irrevocable destruction caused by radiation.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 720,
        "id": "12880",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/q_FRS0THBb6MgJ1E6w3wrbuxtNu4s2jH5LED3SYHdwnN-jXTcPMb553OyAHL0qisCf59pbbVf6AD1fJYTjgzWEznRw=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Thirteen-year-old Pawan Bagirath has had mental disabilities and weak limbs since birth. His mother, Bhirma, claimed that there are a number of cases similar to his, which cropped up only after the nuclear test.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12881",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/IRWcTNBurJQYiOWsJLngnrOnmhvrlpBEqitIN2AbLr5ayU0oEHUJdc1tzhLVAjPCcQIp03PSCE6gUcLe5WGY8Pv6bw=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Rajjo Nizamuddin is 52 years old, and suffers from breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy at a hospital in Jodhpur, but the cancer relapsed within a few months of the treatment. Her family, which has lost four people to cancer so far, has already spent between seven and eight lakh rupees on her recovery, and have sold their land to fund it.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12882",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/ECkU2nW9vpT0OEptPzLH_1GxEgtsHN_P2q9G5OTvvO3PiUWVCRqMlCyEGok7Jf4KRCISSFXhSxGLisn6PydYTigzXQ=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "India’s second nuclear test was conducted on summer of 1998 at the Pokhran firing range, around two-and-a-half kilometres from the village of Khetolai, pictured here.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1280,
        "w": 1920,
        "id": "12883",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/Jq762h6kSgOFwO0JDtdcwGVRxdMdHhrOW5pDqfPvSl9W6tPQRmADVd76YoLBo05gaFopsQt-F5054x8fJiCS-_grZw=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Nine-year-old Komal Bishnoi has had an enlarged head since birth, and is being treated at a hospital in Jodhpur, as there are no reputed government hospitals close to Khetolai, where she lives.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "figure",
      "attrs": {
        "h": 1080,
        "w": 923,
        "id": "12884",
        "src": "//lh3.googleusercontent.com/sPUOKcvOyy_BXVtJw6lwPCmG0GioWy1ZBUdJV7oWIH5qI8-DLCXJksDlsmpLo5usQtKw1gCN-0Jc5iNhSLg-Bm8d9w=s0"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "caption",
          "content": [
            {
              "text": "Traces of nuclear radiation can be found in the soil, groundwater and trees in villages around the nuclear test site.",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "credit"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

IN AN IMAGE CAPTURED BY the documentary photographer Chinky Shukla, a nine-year-old girl stands in front of a fence and gazes into the camera. Her head looks slightly enlarged and disproportionate to her body. The photograph is from “A Curse in Disguise,” Shukla’s series on people who experienced adverse health conditions following a nuclear test, code-named Operation Shakti, that was held at Pokhran, Rajasthan, in 1998.

The test involved five nuclear-bomb detonations, and was the second of the two nuclear tests India has conducted at the Indian army’s test range in Pokhran. The first, code-named Smiling Buddha, was held in 1974. At the time, people from villages surrounding the range were largely unaware of the explosion until it was announced on the radio. But the 1998 test was carried out on a much larger scale, and army personnel instructed villagers to evacuate before the explosion. Despite these precautions, the scale and severity of the test affected villages located between two and five kilometres from the range, including Khetolai, Loharki, Odhaniya and Chacha.

“At around 3 pm on 11 May 1998, we felt tremors of an earthquake,” Nathu Ram Bishnoi, the village head of Khetolai, recalled to Shukla. “A gigantic cloud of dust went up in the air at the Pokhran firing range.” Mud huts developed deep cracks, and rainwater tanks and wells were damaged. According to Shukla, a study conducted by the former joint director of medical and health services in Jodhpur found traces of nuclear radiation in the soil, underground water and even trees in the villages near the testing ground.

Operation Shakti had a severe impact on the villagers’ health, Shukla noted, when she visited the regions near Pokhran, in September 2017. “Bhagwati Bishnoi, a resident of Khetolai, died within a year after the test,” Shukla said, adding that Bishnoi’s mother claimed that her daughter began to develop health complications after the test, was diagnosed with blood cancer and eventually succumbed to it. In the months following the explosion, many villagers said they felt skin irritation and a burning sensation in their eyes and noses. Over time, cases of cancer, cerebral palsy and mental illness cropped up among the area’s residents, who incurred large amounts of debt in treating these illnesses.

In 1974, the government compensated villagers for what they had experienced, and paid them between three and four rupees for each bigha of land. Those with 500 bighas received 2,000 rupees. In the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear test, only people living in houses that had sustained damage were compensated. According to Shukla, the villagers claimed the compensation was too little to mend their houses or treat the diseases, and that their demands for a well-equipped hospital and a pension for the handicapped went ignored. She recalled a conversation with Nathu Ram Bishnoi, the sarpanch of Khetolai, who claimed that “the government officials who conducted the nuclear test do not want to take any responsibility for the effects of the aftermath on the lives of villagers.”

This is not Shukla’s first time working on a photo series that explores the health repercussions of radioactive material. In her previous work, “Jadugoda: The Nuclear Graveyard,” she examined the impact of uranium mining and radioactivity on the residents of Jadugoda in Jharkhand. Produced in 2012, Shukla’s photographs focussed primarily on visible physiological manifestations, many of which were congenital deformities, such as an enlarged chest or six toes. In “A Curse in Disguise,” however, Shukla’s images depict more than ailments apparent to the naked eye; they include portraits of victims with cancer, mental disability and heart disease. One photograph, for instance, depicts a young girl against the backdrop of a bush. Somewhat unusually, she appears to be merging into the background, almost as if her surroundings are permeating her body; Shukla uses the technique of multiple exposures here to allude to the impact the environment, and its pollution, may have had on the girl’s health. The girl, Anjali Gogali, is a student in the seventh standard who complains frequently about the overpowering noise from the Bofors firing range, a little over two kilometres from her house in the village of Khetolai. Through such portraits, Shukla’s series stands as evidence of the continuing effects of India’s nuclear testing on life in Pokhran.