Surrounded by a concrete jungle —apartments and flyover on one side, six-lane national highway and Metro corridor on the other — is a vast expanse of lush green fields. A closer look at what really exists behind the carefully cultivated farms at Yamuna Khadar, however, brings forth a horrific account of polluted water and poisonous vegetables. Latest reports have revealed how the produce irrigated here is contaminated with harmful chemicals. Yet, they are sold in the markets, risking the health of thousands of consumers unmindful of the toxins they are feeding on.

This week, DNA pieces together a tale in which pollution is the protagonist.

Unlettered farmers, toiling day in and out to earn two square meals a day, make a prominent appearance in a script driven by administrative indifference, ignorance, and inaction.

Food Bowl For Decades

In the Yamuna floodplains located between Delhi and Noida grow seasonal vegetables. Ladyfingers, tomatoes, radish, gourd, ridge gourd, red and green chillies, green leafy vegetables like spinach, cholai, bathua. They have been the staple produce here for decades. For irrigation, they are dependent on the Yamuna’s water, which is choking with effluents. Borewells and underground pumps bring this polluted water to the farms, acting as catalyst for harmful chemicals to infuse into the crops.

For agriculturists at Yamuna Khadar, most of whom do not own land but work on contract, the water is fit for drinking as well as irrigation. They dispute claims that their produce is full of toxins, and try to prove it. Bisnu Chhote, who works in the field, gulps down half a glass of water. “We have been using this water in the fields as well as for personal consumption. Look at us. We are hail and hearty. The water is clean and so are the vegetables,” he says, pointing towards the small patch of land where his wife and daughter are plucking green chillies to be sold in the evening.

Samples of the vegetables grown here were tested by a private lab. They showed an extremely high quantity of contaminants including lead, mercury and arsenic. Bottle gourd — ghiya — had a whopping 28.06 PPM (parts per million) of lead, 139.90 PPM of mercury and 318.70 PPM of arsenic.

The Food Safety and Standards Regulation has pegged the permissible limit of lead and mercury to 0.1 PPM and 1.0 PPM respectively. There is no scale to measure arsenic since the FSSR does not map the chemical as a contaminant that could be present in vegetables.

Ridge gourd, or tori, from Yamuna Khadar was packed with 26.33 PPM of lead, 128.20 PPM mercury and 209 PPM arsenic.

The farmers do not know. Living in kuccha houses that may fall down any time, they have based their source of livelihood on a simple truth. “Hamein report ka nahin pata,” says Shailender, who grows all the greens. “We dug the borewell which pumps river water in to our fields. We drink and bathe with the same. There is no filth in the water, not in this area,” he asserts when being asked if he is aware how harmful the Yamuna’s water is for human use.

A Dip In The Yamuna?

When the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) assumed power in 2015, then Delhi health minister Kapil Mishra announced that he would “bathe in a clean Yamuna in 36 months”. He had set a three-year deadline to cleanse the river, which is abused daily with all kind of waste — industrial, human, animal. The pollutants that rise to the surface and cover the river like fresh snow are a sight almost every Delhiite has seen once.

After that September when Mishra decided to rope in private players for Clean Yamuna Mission, he was declared a traitor by chief minister Arvind Kejirwal, and the legislator turned a rebel, abandoning his pet project. The National Green Tribunal also cracked its whip on the Delhi government as well as the Centre over the appalling condition of the river, the deadline for whose cleanup is coming to a close this month.

The Clean Yamuna project was conceptualised as two phases — one to lower the pollution in Najafgarh and Delhi Gate drains, and the second to deal with Shahdara, Barapullah and other drains. The rejuvenation is in limbo, often prompting NGT to take matters in its own hands.

In May 2017, it banned open defecation around the river. In 2015, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was directed to set up 14 sewage treatment plants (STPs), but in July this year, the tribunal rapped the DJB, observing it had failed to achieve any “meaningful success” in three years.

The court then formed a monitoring committee, directing it to submit an action plan and a detailed report this year.

Activists are sceptical. They describe the black water running through the river. “Yamuna has become dirtier over the years. The water is not usable for basic activity like washing clothes. Irrigation, drinking and bathing in it is out of the question,” says Jeevesh Gupta, Delhi-based environmentalist.

As the ‘sacred’ river gets defiled every day, Subir Dey, another green activist, rings alarm bells on the extent of pollution. “The water has severely contaminated the soil with harmful chemicals. It will take decades to cleanse it and there is no manual process for it. This is similar to fertilisers pollution — no way out,” he says. “Had you ever heard of Delhi being prone to floods? Rainwater cannot seep into Yamuna now because of so much concrete around it,” Dey says.

Inorganic Meals

Scores of people buy vegetables grown in Yamuna Khadar, oblivious to how detrimental it is to their health. The seemingly fresh vegetables are mostly sold by growers in areas like Wazirpur, Ghazipur, Shakarpur and Sarai Kale Khan. Some of them even sit by the Noida-Delhi highway to sell the produce contaminated with lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Eating these chemicals with food is akin to slow poisoning as they can wreak havoc on the nervous system and vital organs and affect the cardiovascular system. “The toxins gradually affect all organs as you consume them regularly. It can lead to kidney failure, bone marrow suppression. Mercury can cause neurological and chromosomal problems while arsenic destroys red blood cells and triggers cardiac problems,” says Dr Shameek Choudhary from Medius Health.

Is It Our Fault, Ask Farmers

The farmers are prepared for the authorities to raze their fields as news of polluted vegetables gathers steam. A cluster of men in the fields complain of how the weakest link bears the brunt.

“No one will question the government that has failed to clean the Yamuna. Everyone will come running after the farmer because he is poor and the most readily available victim,” says Subhash Kumar. He earns Rs 3,000 a month, sometimes less, from the vegetables he grows, to feed a family of eight. Kiran Kumar, another agriculturist, seems resigned. “Now that it is on TV channels, officials will come and raze the fields. We will lose our livelihood but what does the government care? It wants to fix immediate responsibility and thinks it is us,” Kumar complains. As he gets up to water his farm, he murmurs, “Hum zeher nahin bechte.”