[VIDEO] Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984

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Graveyard Bullies- 25 years of Bhopal gas Tragedy (By INDRA SINHA),

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A great catastrophe, followed by years of sickness, poverty and injustice can overwhelm and crush the human spirit, or it can enable ordinary people to discover that they are extraordinary. Such people find that they have the grit to survive, the defiance to face their persecutors and the courage to fight back. Out of shared struggle, even in the midst of poverty and sickness, comes strength, the joy of friendship, and the realisation that they are not weak, powerless or contemptible. They are in fact possessed of power, power to bring about political change, and to do real good in their community and in the world.
In Bhopal, some of the poorest, most helpless people on earth, sick, living on the edge of starvation, illiterate, without funds, powerful friends or political influence, have for the last quarter of a century struggled for their lives against the world’s biggest chemical corporation, its allies in the US, Indian and Madhya Pradesh governments, its Indian tycoon friends, plus an army of top-flight lawyers, hired lobbyists and PR agents.

It’s a struggle of those who have nothing against those who have it all. Where many Bhopal survivors can barely afford one meal a day, the company has limitless wealth. Since 2006, it has spent $300 million on lavish advertising, portraying itself as a caring benefactor of humanity.

The company has been fined for bribing Indian officials, it is known to have lied, attempted to subvert democracy, bullied politicians and twisted the laws of two nations to avoid justice in either. The Bhopalis, seeking help from their own government, were instead abandoned to their fate, ignored by politicians, fleeced by corrupt officials, swindled by moneylenders and unscrupulous quacks, not infrequently arrested, kicked and beaten by the police for daring to protest. Every authority that owed the Bhopal survivors a duty of care has failed them.

Having nothing, and no one else to turn to, they were forced to help themselves, and discovered that the poorest slums were full of talent. From this humblest of communities has come a remarkable flowering of political intelligence, social service, medicine, art, science and music. They have set up their own innovative medical clinic, which has provided free care to almost 35,000 people and won international awards for the quality of its work. While we celebrate their achievements, we must remember that everything the Bhopalis have achieved has been won against brutal opposition, in a context of struggle and suffering, of which there is still no end in sight.
But in the immediate aftermath, Union Carbide offered no help or advice to the seriously ill, terrified survivors of the gas disaster. ‘Medical experts’ sent to Bhopal from the US turned out to be professional witnesses and chemical weapons experts. The one treatment that brought relief, sodium thiosulphate, was stopped after the company intervened, fearing the medical and legal implications of the drug’s success. (Its success implied that the methyl isocyanate poisoning caused by the gas leak could generate hydrogen cyanide in the body.) The first survivors’ organisation began giving the injections itself, but its self-built clinic, a pole-and-thatch affair, was attacked by the police, its equipment looted and frail building torn down.


Counting crows: Bodies of the gas leak victims lined up outside a Bhopal hospital

Children, damaged beyond recognition, began being born in Bhopal. In March 1985, a column of frightened mothers-to-be wound towards a government hospital with bottles containing urine samples. The women asked for the samples to be tested to check whether their babies could be born damaged, and to ask for thiosulphate injections to rid their bodies of toxins inhaled on ‘that night’. But instead of injections, tests, medical advice and kindness, they were driven away by the police.

Ironically, as these scared women were being chased away, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was carrying out a double-blind clinical trial to test the efficacy of sodium thiosulphate injections as a detoxicant for the gas-exposed. And while the fears of mothers-to-be were all too soon realised in what one medical expert described as ‘a spate of horrific births’, the ICMR results took 22 years to be published. They revealed, a whole generation too late, that the injections could indeed have saved tens of thousands of lives.
This story summarises in bleak miniature the fate of a quarter century of attempts by the poisoned people to obtain effective medical care. Such efforts, whether relating to illness caused by the gas leak or to the more recently discovered water-poisoning, have consistently been stonewalled and obstructed by Union Carbide, its owner Dow Chemical, Indian health authorities and politicians. Arrests of protesters and brutal beatings are still used to deny the survivors their right not just to proper health care, medical research and fair compensation, but even the right to ask for these things.

There is much the survivors can, and are, doing for themselves. But much more they cannot realistically achieve without victory in the courts. Cleaning up the contaminated soil and water in and around the factory is of critical importance for health, as tens of thousands continue to be poisoned, with consequent epidemics of cancers and damaged births, but only political and legal action can get the site cleaned to an acceptably high standard. It is beyond the survivors to raise the sums needed to do it. Under the laws both of India and the US, Union Carbide should pay, but Carbide has spent the last 17 years ignoring an Indian court summons. Dow Chemical claims it cannot make its wholly-owned subsidiary obey the law, and at the same time seeks to smear Bhopal survivors as terrorists.
In December 2003, the New Jersey Star Ledger ran a Dow press release: “Three ‘Justice for Bhopal’ terrorists were shot dead at a Dow Chemical facility in Piscataway, New Jersey.... Bhopal activists stormed the Dow facility, took eight Dow workers hostage killing one. Later, a SWAT team took out the three terrorists....” The paper belatedly revealed that the “Piscataway police had dressed as the Bhopal terrorists in a mock drill”.

In May 2004, the Supreme Court ordered the Madhya Pradesh government to provide clean drinking water for communities whose wells and stand pipes had been poisoned. A year later, with no sign of any action, desperate women took their sick children to ask officials why they had failed to obey the Supreme Court’s order. The women were severely beaten by the police.

Another year passed. Still the poisoned people had no clean water, but the chief minister announced a plan to spend around Rs 800 crore on public gymnasia and ornamental fountains to beautify the city. The minister in charge of ‘gas relief’ celebrated his birthday with elephants, camels, dancing horses, a 53-kilogram cake and a fireworks display. Newspapers reported that the flower garland his supporters wound around his neck was 21 feet long.

By 2008, the Supreme Court’s order had still not been carried out. Bhopalis, including many old and sick people, walked 500 miles to Delhi to ask the prime minister’s help. After waiting to see him for two months, in desperation, a group of mothers carrying their damaged children chained themselves to the railings of the PM’s house. They were arrested. The policewomen who led them away to jail were weeping.

The Bhopali survivors have now made three long marches to Delhi, in 1989, 2006 and 2008. They’ve endured extremes of heat and cold, slept in deserts and snake-infested jungles and walked through badlands ruled by bandits. Some women have been on all three walks. Most can look back on a lifetime of struggle: street demos, sit-ins, roadblocks, boycotts, graffiti-actions, fly-poster campaigns, hunger-strikes with and without water. They’ve staged exhibitions, satirical awards, music concerts, street theatre and created some of the most extraordinary protest art ever seen. All these things, plus the torches and banners, the songs and slogans like Women Of Bhopal: Flames Not Flowers and the famous Jhadoo Maro Dow Ko! are part of the survivors’ efforts to win proper health care for themselves and their families, and to bring to court those responsible for the tens of thousands of damaged, sick and dead. No matter what powers, riches and vested interests may be opposed to the Bhopalis, it is up to the rest of us, who believe in justice and universal human rights, to make sure that their efforts do not fail.



(Indra Sinha is a campaigner for the Bhopal victims and author of the Booker-shortlisted Animal’s People, a fictionalisation of the disaster.)
 
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nothing important to say but gosh how time flies,remember attending an international benefit cricket match at Old Trafford to support victims of this tragedy.
 
Bhopal: Twenty-five years on

Bhopal: The victims are still being born
Twenty-five years on, the world's worst industrial accident continues to kill and blight many lives. And still there's been no trial

By Nina Lakhani

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GRIM REMINDER: In Bhopal, India, a child holds a candle during a vigil on the eve of the 25th anniversary of an industrial disaster that killed about 4 000 people. ( Altaf Qadri, AP)

Hazira Bee, 53, lives in one of the worst affected areas. The leakage blighted her entire family: one son has spent his life in and out of hospital; all her children missed their education, leaving her as the sole breadwinner

Bhopal is a calamity without end. On 3 December 1984, clouds of poison leaking from a Union Carbide pesticides plant brought death to thousands in this central Indian city. Today, fully a quarter of a century later, victims of this, the world's worst industrial disaster, are still being born.
Here, in neighbourhoods where people depend on water contaminated by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory and to mothers exposed to the toxic gas as children, brain damaged and malformed babies are 10 times more common than the national average. Doctors at Bhopal's Sambhavna Clinic say that as many as one in 25 babies are still born with defects and developmental problems such as a smaller head, webbed feet and low birth weight.

Those who were mere children when the fumes overcame this city of a million are suffering, too. Painful skin lesions, stomach problems and raw, itchy eyes are common complaints among thousands of families, some of whom moved to Bhopal only in recent years. And the clinic says that Bhopal now has some of India's highest rates of gall bladder and oesophageal cancers, TB, anaemia and thyroid abnormalities. Young girls start menstruating much later than normal and experience painful gynaecological problems, which often lead to hysterectomies at a young age.

These problems, say campaigners such as the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA), are linked to the continuing pollution of parts of the local water supply by chemicals such as chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. Families have no choice but to use ground water for washing, cooking and drinking when safe sources run dry, according to new research that will be published by the BMA on Tuesday. The study found higher levels of several carcinogenic chemicals in water sources this year compared with last year – strongly suggesting that future generations will be poisoned unless the area is decontaminated. This flies in the face of recent claims by state and national ministers that the site is clean.

Meanwhile, the legal fight for the chief executive of Union Carbide to be tried for his company's alleged negligence is no nearer success than it was 25 years ago. Amnesty International will this week call on the Indian government and Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, to take "urgent and decisive action" to ensure that the accused appear in court – more than 20 years after arrest warrants were first issued. Dow continues to deny any responsibility for the criminal case.

It was in the early hours of 3 December 1984 that 27 tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas – 500 times more toxic than cyanide and used to manufacture the pesticide Sevin – began to leak from the Union Carbide plant into the surrounding areas. Hundreds of thousands were injured by the gas as they slept. Men, women and children living in the shanty settlements just over the factory fence woke up, gasping for breath and blinded by the gas as it rapidly dispersed.

Around 8,000 people are now believed to have died within the first 72 hours. Hundreds died in their beds; thousands more staggered from their homes to die in the street. Another 15,000 are estimated to have died as a result of the gas exposure since then, often from painful and horrific damage to their lungs, heart, brain and other organs, according to Amnesty International. An estimated three-quarters of the area's pregnant women spontaneously aborted their babies within hours or days after "that night". Hundreds more babies have since been born with deformities such as missing limbs, abnormal organs, misshapen heads and tumours. None of the plant's six safety systems was operational that night.

Even today, Amnesty International estimates that 120,000 people exposed to the gas have chronic medical conditions. While the factory was closed down in 1985, another 30,000 people have become sick from water contaminated by the chemical waste buried underground or dumped in nearby ponds, according to health workers in Bhopal. Children and livestock are still spotted playing and grazing on the grass that hides the waste because the local government has failed to secure the site properly.

Hazira Bee, 53, lives in J P Nagar, one of the worst affected areas to the north of the city. On the night of the disaster, after awakening to the smell of burning chilli, she and her husband ran with their children, their eyes and lungs stinging with the gas. In the panic, her middle son, Mansoor Ali, aged four, was left behind. He has spent the majority of his life in and out of hospital, severely weakened by chronic lung damage. His daughter, now aged three and a half, was unable to hold her head up or turn on her side until she was 18 months old; she has just started to walk. All Hazira's family have suffered from respiratory, neurological and skin conditions since the leak.

Hazira said: "The scene inside the factory was terrible. I saw dead bodies and injured people with foam coming out of their mouths. Since the gas leak we have all been sick. Because of this, my children couldn't study and now they can't get good jobs. Today I am the only breadwinner of the family. If this disaster would have taken place in America, the US government would have taken good care of their citizens. We want UC to take their waste back to America."

The BMA water analysis report supports previous studies by Greenpeace which established that the areas north of the disused factory are worst affected because the ground water runs in that direction. The Sambhavna Clinic – set up 13 years ago with private donations – sees 150 people like Hazira and her family every day. There are 23,000 people who were either exposed to the gas or who have since used contaminated water supplies registered with chronic conditions such as liver disease, paralysis and severe anaemia. Doctors report new patients – adults and children – at the clinic every day.

According to Satinath Sarangi, a founder of the Sambhavna Clinic, tuberculosis is rife among people whose immune systems have been worn down by chronic exposure to poisonous water. Cancer clusters and children born with deformities are another distinction of the area, found by the clinic's researchers who are conducting a door-to-door survey of tens of thousands of local people.

Earlier this year, the Indian Council of Medical Research finally bowed to public and international pressure by restarting a government-funded research programme to understand the alarming rates of still births, cancers, neurological and gynaecological problems seen by Bhopal's doctors. Charities and pressure groups had been left to study the long-term health problems of Union Carbide's victims after ICMR controversially abandoned its research programme in 1994.

The $470m out-of-court settlement made by Union Carbide in 1989 is regarded as grossly inadequate by the city's health professionals and survivor organisations. It was based on early estimates of only 3,800 deaths and 102,000 injured, and the maximum amount any victim received was $1,000 – about 11 cents a day over 25 years. Had compensation been the same as for those exposed to asbestos under US court rulings against defendants that also included Union Carbide, the liability would have exceeded $10bn.

The Dow Chemical Company insists that it has no responsibility for toxic legacy. Yet internal correspondence, seen by The IoS and Amnesty, between different Indian ministries (including the Prime Minister's Office) shows that the company continues to lobby Indian ministers in an attempt to close down the ongoing civil cases. These could require Dow to decontaminate thousands of tonnes of polluted soil.

Colin Toogood, of the BMA, said: "We want to see a full clean-up of the disaster site and surrounding area, including the ground water aquifer – a huge undertaking, but reasonable considering this was the world's worst industrial disaster. The $470m compensation payout only ever pertained to people affected by exposure to the gas on that night. It does not, and never did, cover children born with terrible defects as a result of their parent's exposure; people being affected by the environmental or water contamination; and it does not cover the environmental contamination itself."

Tom Sprick from Union Carbide, said: "Neither Union Carbide nor its officials are subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court since they did not have any involvement in the operation of the plant... The government of India needs to address any ongoing medical and health concerns of the Bhopal people."

But according to Tim Edwards, a trustee of the BMA and author of the forthcoming Amnesty report, this conveys contempt for the process of law. He said: "In every form of civilised society it is the judicial system that decides whether an accused has a case to answer. India's courts have decided that Union Carbide and its new owner, Dow, do – but the company sticks two fingers up."

Scot Wheeler, from Dow, responded: "Attempts to attach any liability to Dow are misplaced... like all global companies, it is common for Dow leaders to meet with government leaders and officials wherever we do business and have plans to grow. It is also common for companies to discuss challenges and opportunities related to investment."
 
Hardly any difference between that factory and a tac-nuke.

I read the list of safety failures that caused the disaster - it went on and on. Someone should be spending life in jail.
 
Victims of a horrifying 1984 gas leak in the Indian city of Bhopal, who have long suffered the debilitating fallout of the world's worst industrial disaster, are now dying from the novel coronavirus, with relatives and activists accusing the government of abandoning them and withholding treatment.

Toxic methyl isocyanate released from the Union Carbide pesticide factory killed 3,500 people in the central Indian city instantly and 25,000 others in the years that followed.

Now its victims make up a significant proportion of coronavirus deaths in Bhopal - at least 20 out of 45, according to government data, while activists say 37 of the dead suffered illnesses related to the leak.

Gaurav Khatik's 52-year-old father Naresh was one of them. Khatik said his father, who suffered lung damage in the disaster, was denied treatment at a hospital built for gas-afflicted patients.

The state-of-the-art Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) - a busy four-storey 350-bed facility on a sprawling compound on the city's outskirts - was requisitioned by the Madhya Pradesh state government in March for COVID-19 patients.

But the move created "a lot of confusion" and contributed to deadly treatment delays, Khatik told the AFP news agency.

A lack of transport due to the lockdown also meant that an average 40-minute journey from the city centre to the hospital became an long and arduous trip under sweltering conditions.

"People wasted a lot of time going from one hospital to another to seek treatment, which claimed many lives," the 20-year-old said.

The BMHRC turned away people who were not considered virus patients even though they had COVID-19 symptoms, critics said.

They were then denied treatment at other hospitals, with staff saying they did not have the specialised equipment to treat gas-related ailments. They were presumed not to have the virus and no tests were carried out.

"If there was no confusion over the status of Bhopal Memorial Hospital, my father would probably be alive," Khatik said.

Naresh was eventually admitted to a private hospital, where he was finally tested for the virus as his condition deteriorated.

He died within hours of testing positive, leaving his shell-shocked family without a breadwinner and almost $1,180 in medical debt.

"He was our lifeline," Khatik said, fighting to hold back tears.

'Nightmare'

Activists accuse the government of abandoning the community, whose health conditions make them vulnerable to new coronavirus.

"We had alerted the government that if they didn't take proactive action, many gas victims would die from COVID-19 ... but they paid no heed," Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action told AFP.

"They should have reached out to all gas victims suffering from diabetes or hypertension and tested them."

Like Khatik, housewife Gulnaz faced a "nightmare" when her father-in-law Riyazuddin - who suffered respiratory ailments after the gas disaster - complained of breathing difficulties.

"We had to struggle a lot ... to get help," the 35-year-old told AFP, adding that four hospitals, including BMHRC, refused to take the 65-year-old.

He was finally admitted to the state-run Hamidia Hospital, where he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"He was in the hospital only for a day and passed away by evening," Gulnaz, who only gave her first name, said.

Authorities eventually reversed their decision to requisition BMHRC. But the move came too late for many patients, Dhingra said.

The activist said at least five gas victims died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, because the hospital rejected them.

Bhopal's health commissioner Faiz Ahmed Kidwai told AFP "only one case of a patient turned away is accurate".

"All those who died did not die because BMHRC refused admission," he said.

'Collapsed system'

The 1984 disaster left deep scars across the city of 1.8 million.

Government statistics compiled after 1994 say at least 100,000 people living near the plant suffered ailments including respiratory and kidney problems, and cancer.

Gas-affected mothers gave birth to infants with congenital disorders. Children fell ill from polluted groundwater.

A $470m settlement inked in 1989 only provided compensation to some 5,000 people, campaigners say.

The government in 2012 filed a legal petition seeking further damages from US chemical giant Dow Chemicals, which now owns Union Carbide.

The state's Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation department director Ved Prakash told AFP that thermal screening was now being carried out on gas victims who have COVID-19 symptoms or are vulnerable, "so that they can be isolated and quarantined".

But Dhingra said the move - which reflects India's push to largely limit testing to people with acute respiratory infections, cough and fever - would sound a death knell for gas victims.

"They have to test ... instead of just screening patients who are high-risk. By the time they turn symptomatic, it will be too late.

"The entire system has collapsed and the most vulnerable are paying with their lives."

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/f...ragedy-dying-coronavirus-200529063747865.html
 
Watching Netflix dramatization - tragedy being described but riveting so far.

May ALLAH swt grant all the dead a place in heaven - Ameen

 
Watched it last night. Loved it.

The sikh mother and son scene made me quite sad and also made me realize how pathetic the subcontinent is.
 
What an amazing series. My trust in Indian shows has been restored.

10/10
 
India is now excelling in producing high-quality web series rather than focusing solely on movies. I believe Pakistan should also invest in creating top-notch web series. If you are interested in exploring Pakistani content, I recommend checking out Urduflix for some quality shows.
 
India is now excelling in producing high-quality web series rather than focusing solely on movies. I believe Pakistan should also invest in creating top-notch web series. If you are interested in exploring Pakistani content, I recommend checking out Urduflix for some quality shows.
OTT shows are breath of fresh air, quite a few of them at least.

Freedom these shows give to makers and actors alike was unheard of in heavily censored Indian film industry. Besides, they also take up the relevant issues which no film maker would probably dare to in non OTT movies.

Would anyone ever make a movie on Uphaar cinema fire tragedy? Or on the crooks like Harshad Mehta, Abdul Karim Telgi, Subroto Roy, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya etc. Or on Burari's 11 suicides, Veerappan?

Best part is these shows are being made in many regional Indian languages too.
 
Hardly any difference between that factory and a tac-nuke.

I read the list of safety failures that caused the disaster - it went on and on. Someone should be spending life in jail.
Bhopal tragedy was happened in 1984 and Union Carbide, USA were having higher stake…. At the time of tragedy, Union Carbide CEO Kenneth Anderson was in Bhopal… after tragedy Madhya Pradesh then CM helped him to flee out of country.

Bhopal Tragedy is the most horrific Industrial disaster… I still remembered India today cover page displaying a face of buried little girl with eyes wide open
 
India has produced some good quality thriller series recently. Delhi crime is one based on real tragic events that happened in India. Now this Bhopal gas tragedy series will be another one to watch out for. It was a sad incident that took many lives and those who died and those who worked hard during that tragic incident should be remembered.
 
Toxic waste from Bhopal gas leak factory removed after 40 years

Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tonnes of toxic waste from an Indian chemical factory that witnessed one of the world's deadliest gas leaks 40 years ago.

A court in December had set a four-week deadline for the waste to be disposed.

On Wednesday, the toxic waste - around 337 tonnes - was taken from the Union Carbide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incinerator facility around 230km (143 miles) away.

It will take between three and nine months to treat and destroy the waste.

Thousands of people died in December 1984 after breathing a poisonous gas leaked from the factory.

Since then, the toxic material had been lying in the mothballed factory, polluting groundwater in the surrounding areas.

The toxic waste cleared from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials - including pesticide residue and "forever chemicals" left from its manufacturing process. These chemicals get the name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.

Over decades, these chemicals at the abandoned factory site had been slowly seeping into the surrounding environment, creating a persistent health hazard for people who live in nearby areas.

A 2018 study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals have contaminated groundwater across 42 residential areas near the factory.

After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh state High Court on 3 December set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of the toxic waste material from the site.

The court said that authorities were "still in a state of inertia despite 40 years".

The process of moving the waste began on Sunday when officials started packing it in leak-proof bags. These bags were then loaded onto 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday.

Officials said the waste was transported under tight security.

There were police escorts, ambulances, fire brigades and a quick response team with the convoy of trucks carrying the waste, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Swatantra Kumar Singh, the head of Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation department, told the PTI news agency that initially, some of the waste would be burnt at the disposal unit in Pithampur and its residue examined for toxic remains.

He said that special arrangements have been made to ensure that fumes from the incinerator or the ash left after do not pollute the air and water.

However, activists and people living near the disposal site have been protesting against the move.

They said that a small amount of waste from the Carbide factory was destroyed at the plant on a trial basis in 2015, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

It ended up polluting the soil, underground water as well as fresh water bodies in the nearby villages, they said.

But Mr Singh has denied these claims.

He said that incineration of toxic waste would not have "any adverse impact" on nearby villages.

Over the years, officials have made several attempts to dispose of the waste from the Bhopal factory but dropped their plans after facing resistance from activists.

In 2015, India's pollution control board said that the toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat but the plan was dropped after protests.

The board later identified sites in Hyderabad and Maharashtra states as well, but faced similar resistance.

The Bhopal gas tragedy is the one of the world's largest industrial disasters.

According to government estimates, around 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since.

But activists say that the death toll is much higher. Victims continue to suffer from the side-effects of being poisoned even today.

In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former managers at the plant, handing down minor fines and brief prison sentences. But many victims and campaigners say that justice has still not been served, given the magnitude of the tragedy.

Union Carbide was a US company which Dow Chemicals bought in 1999.

BBC
 
Toxic waste from world's deadliest gas leak fuels protests in India

Vegetable vendor Shivnarayan Dasana had never seen so many policemen descend on his village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The 60-year-old lives in Tarapur in the industrial town of Pithampur, known for its automobile and pharmaceutical factories. The town has been tense since containers holding 337 tonnes of toxic waste from the site of one of the world's worst industrial disasters arrived for disposal three weeks ago.

The waste, transported from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in the city of Bhopal - site of the 1984 gas tragedy that killed thousands - has sparked fears among locals.

They worry that disposing of it near their homes could be harmful and even cause an environmental disaster.

Protests erupted on 3 January, a day after the waste arrived in the town, escalating into stone-throwing and attempted self-immolations.

Since then, heavy police patrols near the disposal facility have turned Tarapur and surrounding areas into a virtual garrison.

The police have registered seven cases against 100 people since the protests began, but the townspeople continue to raise concerns about industrial pollution at smaller community meetings.

The toxic waste cleared from the Bhopal factory included five types of hazardous materials - including pesticide residue and "forever chemicals" left from its manufacturing process. These chemicals are so-named because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.

Over the decades, these chemicals have seeped into the surrounding environment, creating a health hazard for people living around the factory in Bhopal.

But officials dismiss fears of the waste disposal causing environmental issues in Pithampur.

Senior official Swatantra Kumar Singh outlined the staggered process in an attempt to reassure the public.

"Hazardous waste will be incinerated at 1,200C (2,192F), with 90kg (194.4lb) test batches followed by 270kg batches over three months if toxicity levels are safe," he said.

Mr Singh explained that a "four-layer filtering will purify smoke", which will prevent toxins from entering the air and the residue from incineration will be "sealed in a two layer membrane" and "buried in a specialised landfill" to prevent soil and groundwater contamination.

"We've trained 100 'master trainers' and are hosting sessions to explain the disposal process and build public trust," said administrator Priyank Mishra.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has also defended the waste disposal, calling it both safe and necessary. He urged residents to voice their concerns legally, noting that the disposal was carried out only after orders from the high court.

Environmental experts, however, have differing views on the process.

Some like Subhash C Pandey believe the disposal poses no risk if done properly. Others, like Shyamala Mani, are calling for alternatives to incineration. She argues that incineration increases residual slag and releases harmful toxins like mercury and dioxins.

Ms Mani suggests that bioremediation, a process using micro-organisms to break down harmful substances in waste, could be a more effective and eco-friendly solution.

But residents remain sceptical.

"It's not just waste. It's poison," said Gayatri Tiwari, a mother of five in Tarapur village. "What's the point of life if we can't breathe clean air or drink clean water?"

Pollution is an undeniable reality for the residents of Pithampur. Residents cite past groundwater contamination and ongoing health issues as reasons for scepticism.

The town's rapid industrial growth in the 1980s led to hazardous waste build-up, contaminated water and soil with mercury, arsenic and sulphates. By 2017, the federal agency Central Pollution Control Bureau flagged severe pollution in the area.

Locals allege that many companies don't follow the rules to dispose of non-hazardous waste, choosing to dump it in the soil or water. Tests in 2024 showed elevated harmful substances in water. Activists link this to alleged environmental violations at the disposal facility but officials have denied this.

"Water filters in our homes don't last two months. Skin diseases and kidney stones are common now. Pollution has made life unbearable," said Pankaj Patel, 32, from Chirakhan village, pointing to his water purifier which needs frequently replacing.

Srinivas Dwivedi, regional officer of the State Pollution Control Board, dismissed concerns, saying it's "unrealistic" to expect pre-industrial conditions in Pithampur.

Meanwhile, in Bhopal, nearly 230km (143 miles) away from Pithampur, activists argue that the disposal process is a distraction from much larger issues.

Since the disaster, the toxic material lay in the mothballed factory for decades, polluting groundwater in the surrounding areas.

More than 1.1 million tonnes of contaminated soil remain at the Union Carbide factory site, according to a 2010 report by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and the National Geophysical Research Institute.

"The government is making a show of disposing of 337 metric tonnes while ignoring the much bigger problem in Bhopal," said Nityanand Jayaraman, a leading environmentalist.

"The contamination has worsened over the years, yet the government has done little to address it," added Rachna Dhingra, another activist.

Government estimates say 3,500 people died shortly after the gas leak, with over 15,000 dying later. Activists claim the toll is much higher, with victims still suffering from the side effects of the poisoning.

"Given Pithampur's history of pollution, residents' fears are valid," said Mr Jayaraman.

Officials said they are only "dealing with the waste as specified by the court's directive".

But the reality of Bhopal has deepened the mistrust among the people of Pithampur, who are now prepared to take to the streets again to oppose the waste disposal.

Vegetable vendor Shivnarayan Dasana said the issue goes beyond the waste itself.

"It's about survival - ours and our children's," he said.

BBC
 
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