On an average 5-8 people die every fortnight due to tuberculosis in and around areas surrounding Govandi West. Deonar dumping ground is supposed to be behind this and other ailments

Jawed Khurshid

Govandi West, Baiganwadi, Mankhurd, Shivajinagar and Lallubhai Compound cumulatively represent underbelly of Mumbai. Here the hygiene quotient of the inhabitants is extremely low. People suffer from various contiguous diseases and succumb to these more often; the death tolls in recent times have broken all the past records but the civic body is in denial mode, as usual.

A local doctor at PAP settlement – Lallubhai Compound, Dr PS Ghasade said about 20 per cent of all the patients that visits his clinic are with fresh cases of tuberculosis. And during past two years the number of deaths due to this has increased tremendously.

However there is no data to substantiate the claim but the local health practitioners, social workers and people of the area are quite apprehensive of the Deonar dumping ground that makes the entire area dusty that lingers on in the air. And once your vehicle passes through the highway a strange odor wafts through your nostrils.

‘The density of population is high in Mumbai, particularly in the slum areas which provides friendly ambience to germs that proliferate there many times more faster there,’ said Dr Rajendra T Nanawari, medical superintendent, Group of TB Hospital, Sewree. 

‘With no ventilation and lack of proper sanitation, the chances of getting infected to the disease become more acute,’ he warned.

Dr Nanawari believed that immuno-suppressive drugs like anti carcinogens are more responsible for its spread.

However, the pollution control board elicited its amazement over the civic body’s response to dumping ground’s relation with the rising incidents of TB in the Deonar locality.

A PCB official on condition of anonymity said, ‘we are studying into this; the research is in the mid way but one cannot rule out the possibility of its relation to TB incidents.’

The official compared the cases of TB in dumping ground areas with that of the non-dumping ground areas, said, ‘You’ll find five times more occurrence of this corroding disease here.’