Ankleshwar in Gujarat and Patancheru in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have two of the largest Industrial estates in Asia. Over 4000 factories in these two regions produce much of the world's supply of generic drugs, pesticides and dyes. Most factories hire migrant workers, such as the ones in dye companies as they are not connected to the local community and in case of accident or death, repercussions are limited.
Many of the smaller scale industries do not treat their waste. Untreated effluents seep into the groundwater with the result that the productivity of affected farmland is reduced. The air is thick with the smell of pesticides and pharmaceutical by-products making it hard to breathe and doctors in these areas have reported higher levels of lung related diseases and other illnesses such as birth defects, increased cancer and bronchial asthma.
**Reporting for this story was partly funded by a fellowship from the "South Asian Journalists Association": http://www.saja.org/**