Giridih, April 24: It is the talk of the town that women from Chatro village have been delivering “visually-impaired babies”. Indeed, four of the five babies, delivered by women from the village during the past five months, are either completely or partially visually impaired.

Concerned at the phenomenon, doctors here have called for a more detailed inquiry into the reasons, with people suspecting the high-level of pollution caused by sponge iron units to have triggered the deformity.

Doctors have noticed that the parents appear to be otherwise healthy and the older children born to them too were “normal”. They also observed that women delivering the “visually-impaired babies” are the ones who spent almost the entire period of their pregnancy in and around the area, with their in-laws. Those who went away after conception appear to have been spared the trauma.

Even passive smoking, points out Dr M.L. Sharma, is injurious to women during pregnancy. But here these unfortunate women virtually live under the huge smoke coming out of the sponge iron units mushrooming in the area, thus increasing the risk of troubled pregnancies and deformed children.

The alarming level of pollution in the area is indicated by the colour of leaves and grass which have turned from green to blackish. Trees have stopped bearing fruits and animals have been reported to be dying suddenly, possibly after drinking polluted water.