as a merciless sun scorched jharkhand reducing many human lives to heatwave statistics there was one thread that connected the dead to each other scarcity scarcity of water food shelter and of course money by the time delhi recorded its first heatstroke victim on june 20 jharkhands crematoriums had reduced over 150 mostly tribals to ashes there were 85 deaths in the four days between june 15 and june 19 in jamshedpur aloneeven nature targets the poor says a bitter ishwar soren a father of three who lives in karandi a small village on the outskirts of the steel city where the only sign of activity is the unending line of trucks that pass through it en route the mines across the state in other small villages people echoed sorens lamentit doesnt need much research to see why jharkhand was perhaps hit the hardest this tortuous summer it is always easy to fell a weakened tree in the last four years since the state was carved out from bihar with the promise of a good life and better livelihood the per capita income has plummeted from rs 12250 to just below rs 9000 that is rs 750 a year something a yuppie would spend on a single date with his girlfriend at a multiplexthese and other equally unfortunate statistics make up jharkhands story lack of effort and vision have for instance led to a whopping rs 3800 crore piling up in accumulated surrendered budget this when health care is in a shambles with malnutrition being a major cause for concern according to a usaid report a frightening 73 of women are anaemic one in every 9 children dies in the first year itself girls and boys here are more likely than in most other states to be stunted and wasted with 49 of all children stunted 25 wasted 54 of children below 3 are underweight only 65 of babies are vaccinated and two out of five women are undernourishedif we dont suffer from the heat wave who will biren mahato of kolhan village wants to know in chaibasa as singha bodra and his family of eight wait for the rains his little daughter lelito says she will soon have to start working as her father earns just rs 3000 in a month divide this amount by eight and the reality bites you in the face it is a vicious cycle we begin work early in life because we are not educated we eat less because we cant afford more we are hit hard by both nature and disease because we are weak and vulnerable singha says rattling off a long list of villagers who have been struck down by the heatthen there is the other great destroyer of adivasis in this belt handia no one leaves home without a fill of this local rice brew ironically people take handia to escape as well as face the rigours of the day handia is the greatest bane says shiukar purty a