Kotkapura

KotkKapura takes its name from its founder, Nawab Kapur Singh, and the word 'Kot', meaning a small fort – literally the 'Fort of Kapura'.

Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, en route from Machhiwara, after staying at Dina and after short stopovers at various other places, reached Kot Kapura and asked Nawab Kapura Brar for his fort to fight the pursuing Mughal army.

Kapura was a Sikh, but did not want to earn the ire of the Mughals by helping Guru Gobind Singh openly in his war with them; otherwise, the famous last battle of Muktsar (Khidrane Di Dhaab; now a historic town) between Guru Gobind Singh and the Mughal army would have been fought at Kot Kapura.

[1][2] The climate of the Kotkapura is, on the whole, dry and is characterized by a very hot summer, a short rainy season, and a cold winters.

The weather is generally dry but will be highly humid from mid May to end of August due to farmers irrigating the fields.

The climate is mainly dry, characterized by a very hot summer, a short rainy season and a bracing winter.

A South African Board Certified Candidate Clinical Metal Toxicologist, Carin Smit, visiting Faridkot city in Punjab, India, instrumental in having hair and urine samples taken (2008/9) of 149/53 children respectively, who affected with birth abnormalities including physical deformities, neurological and mental disorders.

At the onset of the action research project, it was expected that heavy metal / chemistry toxicity might be implicated as reasons why these children were so badly affected.

[5][6][7] A study, carried out amongst mentally retarded children in the Malwa region of Punjab, revealed 87% of children below 12 years and 82% beyond that age having uranium levels high enough to cause diseases, also uranium levels in samples of three kids from Kotkapura and Faridkot were 62, 44 and 27 times higher than normal.

[8][9] An investigation carried out The Observer newspaper, in 2009, revealed the possible that cause of contamination of soil and ground water in Malwa region of Punjab, to be the fly ash from coal burnt at thermal power plants, which contains high levels of uranium and ash as the region has state's two biggest coal-fired power stations.

Unscientific farming practices, that emerged after the introduction of Green Revolution, are also alleged to be a reason for growing incidence of not just cancer but also, high rates of spontaneous abortions, reproductive ailments, genetic deformities, anaemia, diarrhoea, vomiting, fluorosis and a host of skin ailments including rashes and boils.