A village of giants

A growing number of people in Alwar, only 60 km from Delhi, are becoming abnormally tall; doctors suspect pesticide poisoning

A growing number of people in Alwar, only 60 km from Delhi, are becoming abnormally tall; doctors suspect pesticide poisoning

For most of us, the dream to reach an NBA player's height ends at the age of 20, when we stop growing. But 37-year-old Kanchan Pradeep Sharma, a resident of Rajasthan's Alwar town, resumed growing when he was 27, and even after 10 years, his body is still expanding in height and girth.

Kanchan friend Nand Lal Meena is also as tall as he is Pics / Rajeev Tyagi

From an average height of 5 feet and 6 inches a decade ago, today Kanchan is gigantic at 6 foot-plus. One look at his distorted V-shaped head, protruding cheekbones, bloodshot eyes and bulbous nose is enough to scare an adult. And Kanchan's demonic growls can leave even the bravest of us quaking.

When he lumbers down the winding galis of Alwar, children hide behind walls and whisper "Woh aaya danav (here comes the monster)."

Gigantic sufferings
But Kanchan is not a circus runaway. He suffers from a rare ailment called Gigantism or in medical etymology, Acromegaly or Pituitary Adenoma. In this disease, an abnormal tumour in the pituitary gland results in secretion of excessive growth hormones even in adults.

Kanchan's sister Rakhi Sharma, however, doesn't understand the medical reasoning behind her elder brother's abnormal condition. She is more concerned about his monstrous diet.

Starting her day at 5 am, Rakhi cooks throughout the day for her brother. She prays for him to become 'human' again because she says she is tired of cooking for him five to six times a day and in proportions that could well feed a village. And if she falters by a minute or one roti is baked a little too crisp for his finicky taste, she has to deal with his uncontrollable wrath. "He has half-a-kilo of daliya for breakfast, six to seven thick rotis before lunch, the same amount for lunch and evening tiffin and again for dinner," complains Rakhi.

We enter their modest house to find Kanchan cooling himself off in front of the lone water air-cooler, the only item of 'luxury' the brother-sister have.u00a0 Though it's pleasant, Kanchan is sweating profusely and doesn't like it much when we start asking him questions about the disease he is suffering from. "Dus saal pehle mere haath, pair aur chehra chauda hone laga. Lambai bhi badh gayi (10 years ago my palms, feet and face started broadening. I started growing tall too)," says Kanchan, his voice eerily heavy and words, incomprehensible.

We let Rakhi do the talking. "He has lost his mental balance. I took him to a doctor in Alwar and then in Jaipur, they recommended brain scans. I got those done. But he doesn't want to get operated upon," she says, as her brother looks up, his eyes angry and his face contorting with anger. "I don't want to get my tumour operated upon because the doctors said I may die during the operation," he grumbles.

Because of his condition, Kanchan's legs have lost their strength and he is too weak to move out of the house.
He also suffers from memory-loss, weak vision and diabetes, complications arising from the ailment. Even pulling on clothes is a tiring task for him. Shoes, he has discarded years ago because they can't find his size any more. "His foot size has gone beyond the largest number 12. So he walks bare foot," says Rakhi.

Not the only giant
But Kanchan is not the lone giant in Alwar. The small heritage city has many such cases and we manage to locate four in a day.

Kanchan's neighbour and childhood friend Nand Lal Meena too was a patient of Gigantism. Meena grew from a regular 5 feet 7 inches to 6 feet and 3 inches in about a year at the age of 31. Meena too became increasingly forgetful, his hearing capabilities decreased and his blood pressure started soaring. A local doctor referred him to Delhi and about two years ago, he underwent a surgery at St Stephen's Hospital in Delhi. The tumour in his pituitary gland was removed and Meena now leads a normal life. Though his height didn't decrease and his palms still look pumped-up, his bulbous nose has shrunk and his diet has reduced from nine rotis in a meal to a regular four.u00a0

The third giant
After Meena, we easily locate the third giant of Alwar, Rajinder Singh. An employee of Guru Sukhdev Shah Charitable Hospital, Singh visited Dr SC Sharma, a local physician, in 2003. Dr Sharma advised him surgery and in 2003, Singh got admitted in AIIMS, Delhi. Today, his feet and palm have shrunk back to normal size but his face distortion remains. And this bothers Singh so much that he refuses to greet unknown people and is too ashamed to be photographed.

A woman and a giant
But worse is the case of Santosh Kumari, a housewife, who has grown about six inches at the age of 30.

Today, at an astounding 5 feet and 11 inches, Santosh is taller than her husband and is referred to as the 'lambi aurat'. Just ask for her in the markets of Alwar and chances are somebody would recall having seen the extraordinarily tall woman slinking around with her head down. She is so ashamed of her condition, she refuses to meet us or be photographed.

"Santosh had a tumour in her ovary and I operated on it. She recovered but soon developed a tumour in the pituitary. She is under medication but it seems I will have to advise her surgery soon. She has even developed facial hair," says Dr Sharma, who is one of the doctors treating her.u00a0

Even doctors don't know
Though Dr Sharma has treated three of the four known giants of Alwar, he has no idea why this disease is affecting the residents of his town. "This rare ailment of hormonal imbalance usually affects about one person in 100," says Dr Sharma.

He is at a loss. "This imbalance can be caused by a genetic defect, head injury or by some kind of slow chemical poisoning," says Dr Sharma.

Other doctors agree. "While the condition can be controlled by medication and radiation therapy, surgery is often advised," says Dr Deepak, one of the members of the team that had treated Meena in Delhi.

"People can live with Gigantism but longevity decreases and there is a threat of other complications. As the body increases in size, vital organs are stretched beyond their limit. The heart too weakens," said Dr Sanjeev Srivastava of Kailash Hospital, Noida.

Are the citizens of Alwar being poisoned?

Dr Deepak suspects Acromegaly in the patients from Alwar could have been caused by slow food poisoning.

"These cases are common in rural India where pesticide poisoning is rampant," says Dr Baldeep Khurana, a general physician, practising in Delhi.

Even Dr Sharma is convinced this could be the most plausible reason. "There is no genetic connection between these patients. Also, none of them have suffered from any head injury. The only factor that links them is food procured from the local markets. Most of these people consume a lot of grains in the form of rotis and dal.

Alwar farmers use a lot of chemical pesticide and maybe these toxic pesticides are seeping into the body." If experts are to be believed, pesticide levels are threateningly high in the ground water in villages of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

"Excessive use of pesticide is creating health problems in these villages. These chemicals seep into human bodies through food and drinking water and can cause many complications. The local administration should take care of this," says a scientist working with the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, wishing anonymity.