After being trained in weaving at the Fansagam Tata Agriculture Centre, Vishnubabu, Sharma and Khansali moved to the Tata Compound at Sarigam. ``We eked out a living through farming 10 acres of land donated by the village panchayat and rearing animals, and even singing and selling toys on trains'', says Vishnubabu, 45. ``But over the past six years, we are reaping the ills sown by chemical units in the neighbourhood. Half our land has been made infertile by chemical effluent; we've lost more than a dozen heads of cattle to contaminated water''.

Khansali, 60, is more direct: ``Ami Chemicals, owned by one Shirish Desai is responsible for our miseries. Even our well has been contaminated.'' Adds Sharma, ``We have had to stop using the well''.

The climax of the trio's battle against the chemical unit came last year, when Sharma lost two buffaloes, allegedly to chemical-contaminated water. Armed with a veterinary report certifying that they had died ``due to chemical poisoning'', Sharma visited Desai and was paid Rs 15,000 as compensation. But he's not happy. ``I had to pay my lawyers Rs 16,000 to get that money out of him'', says Sharma.

Says Desai, ``I compensated him in good faith though he cannot prove that his buffalo died after consuming effluent generated by my unit. I am probably the first industrialist who has personally gone to the affected people to compensate them, though there are other units discharging effluent into their low-lying fields''.

While there is at least one other unit in the neighbourhood, all the accusing fingers do seem to point at Desai. The trio also allege that the industrialist tried to threaten them into dropping their compensation claim by saying that he had considerable clout with the authorities.

These are charges Desai denies immediately. ``I am a local and I understand the problems of the blind. Three years ago, I heard that effluent from my unit was affecting the three blind men. I met them and told them I was willing to compensate for the damage. So far I've handed over Rs 75,000 to them'', he says.

Vishnubabu, Sharma and Khansali, however, are upset about this as well, since the money has been paid in installments. Nor do they buy Desai's claim that he got another well dug for them since the first had become contaminated. ``The water in the new well, too, is contaminated. We have had to get water piped from the adjoining village'', they say.

When this was pointed out to Desai, he simply brushed aside the query. The industrialist claims that three months ago, he installed an insulator -- a device that evaporates effluent -- at his unit and so no longer needs to discharge waste into the nullah that flows into the trio's land. But sos far as the three blind men are concerned, the damage has been done. And the damage is irreversible.