Indian Anti-Graft Hunger Strike Activist Dies
Author:
First published in Sanctuary Asia,
Vol. 31
No. 6,
June 2011
Swami Nigamanand, 36, slipped into a coma in May, days after being hospitalised.
Officials said the government had banned mining in the Kumbh region as demanded by the activist.
But federal Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blamed the state government for "ignoring" the activist's pleas.
A founder-member of a group called Matri Sadan, Swami Nigamanand went on a hunger strike on 19 February demanding a ban on mining around the Ganges river in the Kumbh region in Uttarakhand state.
He was hospitalised on 27 April after his condition deteriorated and he went into a coma on 2 May, doctors said.
The post mortem report said that Swami Nigamanand's death on Tuesday had been caused by "coma, septicaemia and degenerative brain disorder". Read the full report here.
Source: BBC News, U.K.
