This news article is in two parts. Part-I and Part-II is published today.
ANANTNAG: The surge in cancer cases across Jammu and Kashmir, with strong evidence long-term pesticide exposure to dramatically higher brain tumor risk, signals a growing and disturbing public health crisis.
This is not only due to the sheer bulk of staggering statistics. Farmers are developing aggressive cancers not because they're acutely poisoned, but because chronic low-dose pesticide exposure corrupts their cells over twenty or thirty years before tumors finally emerge. The damage isn't from sudden poisoning but from decades of silent cellular destruction.
The biological link between pesticides and cancers is globally proved. Traditionally, organophosphates like chlorpyrifos were understood to cause acute poisoning by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE), leading to potentially fatal neuromuscular crisis. But Kashmir research revealed something more sinister.
Over half the exposed cancer patients had normal AChE levels. They weren't acutely poisoned but they were being damaged through chronic, low-dose exposure via non-cholinergic pathways.
At these chronic exposure levels, the chemicals disrupt hormones, interfere with cellular growth and death signals, generate oxidative stress that damages DNA, and corrupt cells over decades, seeding mutations without causing acute poisoning symptoms.
Paraquat generates reactive oxygen species that damage the gut lining and other organs, potentially initiating the slow process toward cancer.
"It is a slow, silent, and insidious toxicity," explains a toxicologist at SKUAST. "The farmer doesn't collapse after spraying. He feels fine, perhaps nauseous or dizzy for a while. But at a cellular level, damage accumulates year after year, spray after spray, sip of water after sip of water. By the time the tumor causes symptoms, the exposure history is 20 or 30 years deep. The latency period is the trap."
The resulting tumors—glioblastomas in the brain, adenocarcinomas in the digestive tract—are notoriously aggressive. The prognosis is often poor. The treatment involving surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy is brutal, expensive, and undertaken with limited resources.
Dr Shahid Wani, Head of Radiation Oncology at GMC Anantnag, says that the hospital is treating a "sizeable number" of local cancer patients. Early data shows high rates of GI tract adenocarcinomas and hepatobiliary tumors, which Dr Wani links directly to agricultural chemicals—weed killers, fungicides, and pesticides—used in paddy fields and apple orchards. The college is now collecting data to confirm these observations.
"These factors are to be taken seriously," he warns.
Dr Showket Shifa, Head of Paediatrics and Family Medicine at GMC Anantnag, notes a critical knowledge gap. There's "no direct reference" for how these chemicals affect newborns and neonates. Yet he stresses, "The suspected link between hazardous agricultural practices and cancers, particularly in vulnerable populations like children, cannot be ignored."
"Awareness is marginally better than a decade ago, but practice is not," Dr Shifa observes. A neurosurgeon colleague adds that unsafe practices like mixing chemicals in kitchen utensils, spraying in regular clothes, persist with no systematic health surveillance or biomonitoring of water or blood.
"We treat the cancer, but we are not preventing it."
Dr Showket emphasizes that early detection through genetic markers and research is vital for survival, shifting outcomes from late-stage treatment to early intervention.
Scientific evidence shows pesticides and fungicides significantly threaten reproductive health. In men, exposure to organophosphates and pyrethroids causes reduced sperm count, impaired motility, and DNA damage, even from dietary residues. In women, these endocrine disruptors interfere with hormones and damage reproductive tissues, impairing fertility.
A Global Context, A Local Failure
The link between chemicals and cancers is not unique to Kashmir. It has been acknowledged worldwide.
Unlike Europe, where the "vineyard hypothesis" and precautionary principle have driven bans on chlorpyrifos, paraquat, and strict regulation of mancozeb, Kashmir suffers from a catastrophic synergy of extreme chemical dependency, rampant unlicensed products, virtually non-existent safety enforcement, and lack of health surveillance in a densely populated, ecologically sensitive basin where desperate farmers have no alternatives.
This desperation is further exploited by aggressive agrochemical marketing in the absence of affordable alternatives, proper safety enforcement, or education on safer farming methods.
A top oncologist from SKIMS says, “The data from 2010 was a clarion call, and latest research studies like that of 2023 and 2025 are more disturbing. What we see now is the manifestation of exposures that began decades ago.”
The problem is systemic and requires a systemic response, he says, batting for stringent regulation and enforcement to genuine farmer education and the active promotion of sustainable, scientific agriculture.
“Treating the cancer is our medical duty, but preventing it requires a societal and political will that has yet to fully mobilise,” he adds.
The Converging Evidence
Recent scientific investigations, including 2025 epidemiological study mapping stomach cancer hotspots and a 2023 analysis of pesticide contamination in drinking water, provide concrete, localised evidence needed to move from concern to decisive policy intervention.
The 2025 study provides the clearest picture yet of the cancer burden. Analysing 5,554 stomach cancer cases diagnosed across the Kashmir Valley between 2014 and 2023, researchers employed geospatial mapping to identify high-risk clusters.
Rising Incidence: A steady, significant increase in stomach cancer cases was recorded across all districts, with a notable peak in 2023.
Clear Hotspots: Spatial analysis identified the districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, and Srinagar as persistent high-incidence areas. These are regions of intensive horticulture.
Demographic Profile: The majority of cases were male, with the highest incidence observed in individuals aged 60–79, a demographic that represents a lifetime of potential occupational and environmental exposure.
This spatial pattern is not random. It strongly suggests that widespread environmental or lifestyle carcinogens are at work across the valley. As the study notes, the unique socio-cultural and dietary patterns of Kashmir have long been studied, but the "environmental origin risk factors" demand precise investigation. The map of cancer is, increasingly, a map of where people live and work.
If cancer maps reveal the "where," water testing reveals the "how." A 2023 study led by researchers from the University of Kashmir and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences (SKUAST) examined pesticide residues in drinking water sources across the Upper Jhelum basin.
Testing 60 water samples for 26 commonly used pesticides yielded alarming results:
Widespread Contamination: Residues from 10 different pesticides were detected.
High-Risk Exposures: The health risk assessment found that in several sample sites, the levels of chlorpyrifos and quinalphos—both organophosphate insecticides—exceeded safety thresholds. The Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) for these chemicals was greater than 1 at multiple locations, indicating a confirmed non-carcinogenic health risk to the population from drinking water alone.
The Most Prevalent Toxin: The fungicide difenoconazole was found at the highest mean concentration (0.412 ± 0.424 μg/L).
This research confirms the feared environmental pathway: pesticides applied in orchards seep into the soil, run off into streams and springs, and contaminate the groundwater.
The evidence compels a move beyond isolated studies to a systemic response. The cancer hotspot analysis explicitly calls for "targeted public health interventions" informed by this spatial data. The water contamination study underscores the failure of current agricultural regulations and monitoring.
The situation is a vicious cycle. Intensive pesticide use protects crop yields in the short term but poisons the land, water, and people, creating a long-term social and medical disaster that undermines the very prosperity the industry seeks to create.
Between Awareness and Action
In December 2025, we witnessed a rare moment of political attention to this silent epidemic. The J&K Legislative Assembly's Climate Change Committee, chaired by MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, convened on the "alarming rise of (brain) tumours among orchard workers. Questions addressed the lack of annual screening for high-risk workers, absence of rehabilitation for afflicted farmers, and failure to promote safer alternatives.
Senior health officials, including the SKIMS Director and Health Secretary, attended. Assurances were given, but for frontline clinicians at SKIMS Srinagar, SMHS, SMVD Jammu, AIIMS Jammu, GMC Anantnag, and GMC Baramulla, the gap between promises and reality remains vast.
Local efforts exist but are fragile. A few agricultural scientists and small non-profits promote bio-controls and organic practices, but face the powerful agrochemical market, farmers' fear of crop failure, and two generations of chemical dependence.
Dr Raashid Reshi, an Anantnag ophthalmologist, issued a critical health advisory that fungicides and pesticides used in Kashmir's apple orchards cause severe eye damage. Continuous exposure during spraying significantly increases permanent vision loss risk.
Dr Reshi urges strict safety measures. Children and pregnant women must stay away from spraying areas, as they're especially vulnerable. His alert underscores the need for mandatory protective gear, proper training, and enforced safety protocols to protect agricultural workers' vision and health.
The Way Forward
The Assembly's Committee on Climate Change (Environment) is uniquely positioned to drive a cross-departmental response. Based on the evidence, there should be urgent action across four key areas:
Targeted Cancer Registry & Screening Programme: Immediately utilise the 2025 hotspot maps to establish a population-based cancer registry in high-risk districts (Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian). Fund and deploy mobile screening camps specifically for gastrointestinal cancers in these areas.
Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring: Enforce systematic, publicly reported testing of pesticide residues in drinking water, river systems, and agricultural produce from hotspot regions. The 2023 water study methodology provides a ready model.
Transition to Sustainable Horticulture: Institute a phased ban on WHO Class I and other high-hazard pesticides (like chlorpyrifos and quinalphos). Drastically scale up state support for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and organic conversion, providing farmers with subsidies, training, and market access.
Multi-Stakeholder Task Force: Create a statutory body with representatives from Health, Agriculture, Environment, SKIMS, SKUAST Srinagar, and affected communities. Its mandate: publish a time-bound action plan based on this evidence and monitor implementation, with bi-annual reports to the Assembly.
The evidence linking Kashmir's agricultural chemical use to rising cancer rates is now concrete and locally validated, even though longitudinal studies must continue. The responsibility to break this cycle of exposure and disease rests with policymakers, who must act now to protect lives while supporting sustainable farming practices that preserve both the valley's economy and its people.
(Concluded)
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