Death in Parched Farm Field Reveals Growing India Water Tragedy

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Sachin Ingale slipped out of his family’s two-room, white-painted mud hut about 4 p.m. and walked into their farm field where the 22-year-old took a deep swig of pesticide from a plastic bottle. He died later that evening.

Four months later, the mercury is pushing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in his village in India’s Maharashtra state. Inside the family hut, a picture of a serene Buddha decorates a wall above a cracked concrete floor.