A year ago, two thousand five hundred and forty-three people lived in the Indian village of Badi in the center of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Today the number of local residents is already two thousand one hundred ninety-one.
Almost no one left the village - over the past twelve months, three hundred and fifty people have died here, moreover, as a result of suicide. Journalists have already labeled this scourge as an epidemic, and no one can say why Indians are laying hands on themselves.
The youngest suicide was an eleven-year-old boy, the oldest - an eighty-five-year-old pensioner.
What an Indian village looks like
Three hundred and thirteen families here have lost at least one person to suicide. Unfortunately, the village is too poor, and ordinary peasants have no opportunity to move to live in another settlement. Moreover, according to the head of the village, Rajendra Sisodiya, few people are truly afraid. Most Badi residents claim that they and their relatives do not intend to go to the next world, but not a month passes without someone killing themselves. Moreover, most often it turns out to be physically and mentally healthy people.
Psychologists came to the village. Doctors took fifty random residents and interviewed them. Only two people were, according to doctors, prone to suicide, however, they also assured the specialists that, despite all the hardships of life, they were by no means going to kill themselves. Now six of those interviewed are already dead - you can guess for what reason.
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Epidemic or poisoning?
The village head is sounding the alarm, but higher officials are in no hurry to solve the problem of the provincial village.
Citizens of Badi suggest that some demonic forces may be to blame for everything, forcing people to fall into despair overnight and look for such a terrible way out of depression. In the village, by the way, there is a folk healer. At the request of his fellow countrymen, he fell into a trance and tried to ask the Indian gods what was the reason for such misfortune, but the higher powers, according to the sage, refused to answer him. After this, the witch doctor concluded that the village was probably cursed.
The abnormal location piqued the interest of journalist Bruce Sumner from the United States. The American visited Badi in March of this year and stayed there for almost three weeks. During this time, the reporter was able to put forward only one hypothesis. It turned out that the village uses a rare pesticide that is banned in all civilized countries due to its potential danger to humans. Sumner suggests that this chemical may somehow influence people's behavior.
Now the journalist is trying to get Indian scientists to conduct a thorough analysis of the chemical and, if the American's guess is confirmed in the slightest degree, urged the authorities to ban the use of this pesticide. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the Indian village of Badi continue to voluntarily lay hands on themselves …