Tucked away in a scorching side of Pokhran, is an ugly story of a nation's atomic might. In the summer of 1998, India blasted its way into the world's
consciousness by testing a nuclear device. It was heard, but in that loud rumble of earth, triggered by a series of nuclear explosions, a generation lost its voice. The desert dwellers of Pokhran are still paying the price of India's nuclear story that unfolded in the sand dunes nearby.

The first nuclear test, code-named Smiling Buddha, was held in 1974. In the 1998 test, India detonated two fission devices code-named Operation Shakti, which involved five nuclear-bomb detonations at the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan, around two-and-a-half kilometres from the village of Khetolai. The strong tremors from the test made deep cracks in their mud huts, burst the village water tanks, contaminated ponds and farmland, it was something unseen and unheard of. Many in the villages suffered from eyes and nose infections, skin allergies, that worsened with time. Over the years, cases of cancer, cerebral palsy and mental illness cropped up among the area’s residents, who incur large amounts of debt in treating these illnesses.

A recent study done by Dr. Arjun Singh, former Joint Director of Medical and Health Services in the Jodhpur region, found traces of nuclear radiation in the soil, underground water and even trees in the villages near the blast site.

Nearly 20 years after the Smiling Buddha mission, the villages near Pokhran have joined a tragic global circle of residents of nuclear test sites that grapple every day with the aftermath of radiation. The test got India the world's ear, but the residents of these villages are still waiting to be heard. This project is their story.