Today.Az » Weird / Interesting » Kazakhstan’s mysterious sleepy village residents resettled
30 April 2015 [09:50] - Today.Az


/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Unable to find an explanation to the scary sleepy sickness which has plagued Kazakhstan’s Kalachi village, the government has been forced to resettle its residents somewhere else.

Saule Agymbaeva, deputy head of Esil district said some 140 people living in the Kalachi village have been resettled to other places, RIA Novosti reported.

The village of Kalachi became famous all over the world after it was struck by an unexplained sleeping sickness. This mysterious sleeping spell sent residents into long and unexplained fits of sleep.

People fell asleep throughout the village: at their workplace, at school, in the streets and no matter what anyone did none could be awoken from their slumber.

When they did finally awoke, they continued to suffer from drowsiness, memory loss and fatigue. Many even experienced hallucinations.

The disease was first registered in March 2013. Some individuals have been stricken several times since.

About 130 people have fallen ill with the disease, fortunately no one died.

Researchers and scientists came to the village to investigate the unusual phenomenon quickly after several cases were flagged. However numerous investigations and tests couldn’t find any explanation to this mysterious phenomenon.

"Fifty-two families, or 140 people have moved from Kalachi to other places in the Akmola region, as well as to Kostanai and North Kazakhstan region. Following the resettlement none experienced any of the symptoms of the sleeping sickness," Agymbaeva said.

"A total number of 172 families or 396 people are still living in Kalachi. About hundred families or 250 people have asked to be further relocated," Agymbaeva said.

“We resettle just those people who want to move. Some villagers, especially pensioners and those who have not suffered from the ‘sleeping sickness’ have refused to move,” the representative of the district authorities said.

The majority believes that the illness is caused by the wind blowing from the Soviet-era uranium mine. In Soviet times, the village was deemed top secret due to uranium mining activities there. The mine closed in the 1990s.

In March 2014, some radon gas in the environment possibly linked to the mine was detected. But Krasnogorsk, a village which is located closer to the mines has reported no cases of sleeping sickness.

Kazakh authorities have allocated two billion tenge (185.8 tenge = $ 1) for resolution of the problems. The regional authorities have started the construction of several apartment buildings for those people moving from Kalachi.

Earlier, an interdepartmental working group was created in line with the instruction of Kazakh prime minister to address the situation in Kalachi. The group includes representatives of state agencies: ministries of energy, healthcare and social development, interior, national economy, as well as the national security committee and the region’s local authority, and representatives of research institutions.



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