Disposal of first batch of 10 tonnes of Union Carbide waste linked to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy at a facility in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district.
| Photo Credit: PTI

New Delhi:

The disposal of hazardous waste from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy has come under the Supreme Court’s scanner following a petition about the health risk to residents of Pithampur, where it has been shifted. The petition also pointed to the risks to the people of Indore, which is just 30 km away. 

Today, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih agreed to hear a petition challenging the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that triggered the transfer.

The top court has sought responses from the Centre, Madhya Pradesh and its pollution control board.

Around 377 tonnes of waste from the now defunct Union Carbide factory was shifted to Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district, 250 km away from Bhopal, recently.

The petition said at least four-five villages lie within the one km radius from the disposal site, saying the life and health of the residents are at “extreme risk,” the petition alleged. It also pointed out that the Gambhir river flows besides the facility and caters waters to the Yashwant Sagar Dam, which supplies drinking water of 40 per cent of Indore’s population.

It alleged the authorities have not informed the affected residents of Indore and Dhar districts about the risks or issued health advisories. 

On the night of December 2-3, 1984, highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory, causing one of the worst-ever industrial disasters in the world. It killed 5,479 people and maimed more than five lakh others. 

In its order in December last year, the Madhya Pradesh high court had rebuked the authorities for not clearing the Union Carbide site despite directions from the Supreme Court. It set a four-week deadline to shift the waste, observing that even 40 years after the gas tragedy, authorities were in a “state of inertia”. It had even warned the government of contempt proceedings if its directive was not followed.
 

Dhar:

Madhya Pradesh police have registered five cases against protesters in Pithampur of Dhar district who opposed the planned disposal of 337 tonnes of toxic waste linked to the Bhopal gas tragedy in their town, an official said on Saturday.

Protests rocked Pithampur, around 50 km from the district headquarters, on Friday after toxic waste reached Ramky Enviro company, where the incineration is to be carried out.

The protests prompted the authorities to impose prohibitory orders under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) banning the assembly of 50 or more persons around Ramky Enviro.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Manoj Kumar Singh said five separate cases were registered on Friday night in connection with the protests for disrupting public peace.

He said in some cases, people were named, while in others, first information reports (FIRs) were registered against unidentified persons.

Singh said normalcy prevailed in Pithampur town on Saturday morning, and all industrial establishments were functioning.

According to police, cases were registered at Pithampur Sector-1 police station under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections 283 (the exhibition of false lights, marks, or buoys with the intent to mislead navigators), 341 (possession of counterfeit any seal, plate or other instruments with intent of forgery), 149 (collection of men, arms, or ammunition with the intention of waging war against the Government of India), 147 (waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India), 285 (causing danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way), 126 (2) (intentional obstruction of a person’s movement), 190 (unlawful assembly) and 191 (rioting).

During the protests on Friday, a mob of 500-600 people marched to Ramky Group’s Industrial Waste Management Private Limited premises, but the police dispersed them in time.

Two persons attempted self-immolation during demonstrations in several parts of the town amid a bandh call given by Pithampur Bachao Samiti. However, the quick response of the crowd prevented a tragedy, and the men were admitted to a local hospital.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav chaired a high-level meeting on Friday night to review the situation and decided to apprise the courts about the latest position on the issue and not proceed until further court orders in the matter.

He said the state government only transported the Union Carbide waste with safety parameters in compliance with the Supreme Court’s instructions and the High Court’s order.

The court had given a deadline for the waste to reach the designated place before January 4, he added.

Yadav took cognisance of the prevailing situation and said if any threat or sense of fear arises among the public about security, then the state government will try to present this subject before the court, and action will be taken only after this.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Two men set themselves ablaze in Madhya Pradesh’s Pithampur on Friday during a protest against the disposal of hazardous waste from Bhopal’s Union Carbide factory. The men suffered burn injuries and have been hospitalised. 

Over 300 tonnes of the hazardous waste had been stored in the factory since the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 and had been moved in 12 containers to Pithampur in Dhar district for scientific disposal on Wednesday. Residents, under the banner of ‘Pithampur Bachao Samiti’, had called a bandh on Friday to protest against the planned incineration of the waste which, they claimed,  would harm the local people and environment.

During the bandh, which saw shops and markets remaining closed in the town, the two men – aged around 40 – poured an inflammable liquid on their bodies and set themselves ablaze, witnesses said. 

Police also carried out a lathicharge to disperse some protesters after they blocked a key road.

Pithampur has a population of about 1.75 lakh and its industrial area has nearly 700 factories.

Dhar Collector Priyank Mishra assured residents that there is no reason to worry.

“The protest over the disposal of the Union Carbide waste led to law and order issues today. Police and authorities are controlling them. No steps will be taken without taking local residents into confidence. The disposal is taking place using scientific methods and under the directions of the Supreme Court and the High Court. There is no question of keeping anyone in the dark,” he said. 

A similar message was also given by Dhar Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh.

“The Madhya Pradesh government has made it clear that the Union Carbide water will not be disposed of without the consent of Pithanpur. A meeting was held on this yesterday as well. Thus, there is no need for people to be anxious or try and take the law into their hands. The lives and well-being of the people is the top priority of the government,” he said. 

Protesters, however, questioned why the waste wasn’t incinerated in Bhopal itself or sent abroad.

High Court Order

At least 5,479 persons had died and thousands were left with long-lasting health issues after methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3, 1984. 

The waste stayed in the factory for 40 years and the Madhya Pradesh High Court, on December 3 last year, pulled up the state government for not clearing it despite directives from various courts, including the Supreme Court. Rapping authorities for the “state of inertia”, it had set a four-week deadline for the waste to be removed. 

Why Pithampur?

Officials have said the waste disposal plant in Pithampur is the only state-of-the-art incineration plant in Madhya Pradesh. 

The waste will be burned on a special wooden platform 25 feet above the ground and strict scientific protocols will be followed to ensure there is no environmental contamination. Tests will be carried out to determine the best time to incinerate the waste based on factors like the season and ambient temperature. 

At a speed of 90 kg/hour, it will take approximately 153 days to dispose of all 337 tonnes of waste and 51 days if the speed is increased to 270 kg an hour.

Bhopal:

Forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, 337 metric tonnes of hazardous waste remains in a shed of the now defunct Union Carbide despite Rs 126 crore being given to the Madhya Pradesh government by the Centre for disposal, social activists said on Monday.

In the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide factory, killing 5,479 people and maiming more than five lakh others.

Another 1.1 million tonnes of contaminated soil is lying in and around the plant, due to which water sources have also been affected, said ND Jayaprakash, co-convener of Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsha Sahayog Samiti and an intervener in a writ petition connected to the tragedy. It will come up for hearing on Tuesday, he added.

On September 11 this year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court, while hearing a writ petition filed in 2004, had expressed displeasure over delay in starting the work of clearing the hazardous waste from the factory.

Asking the MP Pollution Board chairman to personally look into the matter, the HC division bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Avanindra Kumar Singh had said the work had not started despite the Centre giving the state government Rs 126 crore in March for the purpose.

The hearing on the writ petition set for October 24 could not take place due to Diwali vacations.

“In 2005, a year after the writ petition was filed in HC in 2004, the Union and MP governments collected around 345 metric tonnes (MT) of waste lying on the surface of the abandoned Union Carbide Factory. But this constitutes less than 0.05 per cent of the total hazardous waste that lies there,” claimed Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information & Action.

In 2012, the Supreme Court recognised that toxic waste has contaminated groundwater of 22 communities located around the factory and had ordered the MP government to provide clean piped drinking water to people in the vicinity, Dhingra said.

“In August 2015, ten years after the filing of the writ petition, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) incinerated around 10 tonnes of this waste on a trial basis at a facility in Pithampur (near Indore). It recommended the same for the rest,” she said.

Dhingra pointed out the MP government had filed a Special Leave Petition in the apex court against the incineration of 345 tonnes of waste claiming it would pollute Yashwant Sagar Dam, the source of drinking water for Indore.

At the time, German company Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) offered to transport and incinerate the 345-tonne Union Carbide waste in Hamburg there at a cost of Rs 54 crore but the firm later withdrew its proposal to the MP government after public cry in that nation, Dhingra claimed.

“However, in June last year, the MP government announced it will get the waste incinerated at a cost of Rs 126 crore in Pithampur,” she said.

Jayaprakash said something appeared “fishy” in this Rs 126 crore plan since the one proposed by the German firm was Rs 54 crore.

It is misuse of taxpayers’ money since the cost of incinerating every tonne as per this plan is between Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000, Jayaprakash said, adding he would approach the HC on the matter.

“The waste on the ground can be collected and safely disposed of in a closed-loop incinerator that can monitor the levels of dioxin and furans, the most poisonous chemicals known to man, released. Or it can be stored in stainless containers and Dow Chemicals should be asked to take it to the United States,” Dhingra said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

Union Carbide factory, the site of the deadly gas leak 40 years ago which was once located on Bhopal’s outskirts, is no longer ostracised with its neighbourhood now dotted with residential and commercial establishments.

The real estate in the city grew, though slowly and haphazardly, in the past four decades, though the catastrophe slowed down the development of Bhopal compared to other state capitals.

A prominent shopping mall-cum-entertainment centre is now located just 4 km away and hundreds of residential colonies have cropped up on the then vacant land near the disaster site, overlooking pollution that the tragedy created – be it groundwater or soil contamination.

The highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant here on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, killing 5,479 persons and maiming more than five lakh others.

The Union Carbide factory was part of the Kali Parade industrial campus and it was on the outskirts of the present-day old city, Vishnu Rathore, a former corporator who had represented the adjoining areas, told PTI.

“Now, we can say it is in the middle of the city as hundreds of residential colonies and shopping outlets catering to the people’s needs have come up,” he said.

Rathore, who was 16 years’ old at the time of disaster, said the area is still under-developed but the real estate business has been thriving in the neighbourhood of the abandoned factory site.

Since the tragedy, the city has seen a significant population growth and urban development, including in areas surrounding the Union Carbide plant campus, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) Bhopal unit chief Manoj Singh Meek said.

“The area in the vicinity of Union Carbide, located in northern part of the city, must have added around 100 residential colonies and a population of three lakh during the past four decades,” he said.

But, the industrial disaster severely dented Bhopal’s development and economic growth, Meek said.

“Due to this disaster, Bhopal lagged behind in the race of development of state capitals. No new industrial and big business development took place in Bhopal, resulting in slow pace of the city’s growth,” Meek said.

At the time of the gas tragedy, Bhopal’s population was around 8.5 lakh. Nearly 5.2 lakh persons, including 2 lakh children and about 3,000 pregnant women, were then residing in the 36 wards which were later designated as “gas-affected,” he said.

The immediate aftermath of the disaster saw a significant number of people leaving the city due to health concerns and fear of lingering contamination, Meek said.

But over the time, the population stabilised and began to grow, influenced by factors like urbanisation and economic opportunities, he said.

By 1991, the population grew, indicating a gradual return and influx of residents, Meek said.

He said development in the immediate vicinity of the gas leak site has been “cautious” due to lingering contamination concerns.

The plant site remains largely abandoned, with limited residential or commercial projects directly adjacent to it, the CREDAI official said.

But, the urban expansion and population pressure in peripheral areas have spurred development in neighbourhoods further from the plant, he said.

Former chairman of the Institute of Town Planners India (ITPI), MP Chapter, Shubhashis Banerjee said most of the residential development adjacent to Union Carbide has been illegal.

“The compensation disbursed in the years after the tragedy gave a boost to the local economy, resulting in small-ticket size illegal real estate development in surrounding areas,” he said.

The gas leak site was not dealt with properly, unlike Hiroshima in Japan, which faced an atomic bomb attack, he opined.

“We didn’t handle the catastrophe site properly. The project for the memorial was prepared but could not be implemented. A world class memorial should have been developed there,” he said.

Banerjee said the tragedy alerted the government to strengthen the environmental rules and safety measures for the hazardous industry across the country.

“This slowed the pace of industrialisation,” he said.

Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, an organisation of gas survivors, said development took place at a fast pace after the construction of an overbridge parallel to Union Carbide campus.

“The overbridge was constructed on the solar evaporation ponds of Union Carbide where the toxic waste was being dumped. After that, large-scale real estate development took place in neighbouring areas,” she said.

Even a part of the solar evaporation pond has been encroached upon, Dhingra claimed.

In 2010, it was decided to shift the settlements adjacent to the Union Carbide factory campus and the Centre had sanctioned Rs 40 crore, but the proposal was shelved and situation became grimmer later on, she said.

The land and groundwater in the surrounding areas have turned toxic, but the people are living in such conditions, Dhingra said, while blaming politicians for the “mess” around the gas leak site. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

Nearly 21 months before the world’s worst industrial disaster hit Bhopal, a lawyer had sent a notice to Union Carbide asking it to stop producing toxic gases at its pesticide plant here, citing grave public health risk.

However, the US multinational company summarily rejected his allegations, an act which proved costly as the monumental disaster unfolded on the intervening chilly winter night of December 2 and 3, 1984.

The highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the plant, killing 5,479 persons and maiming more than five lakh others.

The lawyer, Shahnawaz Khan, served a legal notice to the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) on March 4, 1983, asking it to stop producing toxic gases that risked the lives of 50,000 persons living in the vicinity.

But, instead of putting its house in order by overhauling its safety apparatus, the UCIL on April 29, 1983, in a strongly-worded reply to Mr Khan, dismissed his concerns and charges as “baseless”.

In the reply’s last paragraph, UCIL’s Bhopal unit works manager J Mukund then wrote, “We once again repudiate all the allegations made in your notice of 4th March, 1983, and should you take any legal action against us, the same shall be defended at your risk and cost.” The Bhopal-based lawyer is the nephew of freedom fighter Khan Shakir Ali Khan, a four-time MLA from here who was popularly known as “Sher-e-Bhopal”.

Shahnawaz Khan told PTI that after getting the reply to his notice, he started collecting documents from police and other sources on the incidents of leak and consequent death to file a case against the UCIL.

“Before I could collect documents, the gas leaked from the Carbide factory,” the 73-year-old lawyer said.

Asked about his notice, Mr Khan said he was moved after a worker, Ashraf, of the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal died following leak of phosgene gas from the plant on December 25, 1981.

“On January 9 (1982), twenty-five workers were hospitalised following leak at the plant, after which the workers protested,” he recalled.

Another toxic gas leak incident occurred in March 1982. After yet another leak on October 5 the same year, hundreds of residents living near the plant were hospitalised, he said.

“Moved by this, I served a legal notice to UCIL on March 4, 1983,” Mr Khan said, showing the document and the company’s reply.

Mr Khan’s notice pointed out that the factory was located within the Bhopal Municipal Corporation limits in the midst of a populated area and more than 50,000 persons are residing in residential colonies adjacent to it.

“Earlier, one person lost his life in your factory. A few days ago, a serious accident took place in your factory,” it stated.

With the storage and usage of toxic gases and hazardous and poisonous chemicals, residents in the nearby colonies are living in constant danger. They are living in fear, there is lurking danger of anything untoward happening taking place, the notice said.

The lives of 50,000 persons are in danger. Death looms over them all the time, it stated.

“Therefore, you are hereby, through this notice, directed to stop usage of toxic gases and hazardous and poisonous chemicals in your factory within 15 days from the date of this notice, failing which I shall be constrained to take legal action against your factory in the competent court of law and the consequences thereof Union Carbide shall be fully responsible,” it added.

More than a month after Mr Khan served the notice, UCIL’s works manager Mukund in his reply said the allegations were baseless and made out of ignorance of the factory operations.

“Our pesticide complex at Bhopal, like any such complex in the world, is equipped with sophisticated devices for handling various types of chemicals in our manufacturing process or any hazardous incident in the course of manufacturing operations and all precautions are taken for safety of persons working in the factory all also those living in the vicinity,” the reply read.

“In fact, we have taken appropriate precautions with a view to ensure that no pollution is caused by our pesticide complex and your allegation that the persons living in the various colonies near to the industrial area remain under constant threat and danger, is absolutely baseless,” it stated.

The reply further said the company had the requisite permission from the Centre and the state government to operate the plant which is situated in an industrial area.

The US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)-designed Union Carbide India Limited’s plant was built in Bhopal in 1969, the lawyer said.

It was a formulation factory for UCC’s Sevin brand of pesticides, produced by reacting methyl isocyanate and alpha naphthol, he said.

In 1975, the UCC decided to manufacture ingredients of Sevin at its Bhopal unit. Though the regulations then prohibited polluting activity in the two-km periphery from the railway station, the UCC got necessary clearance, he added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

Taking swift action after an NDTV report highlighted massive staff shortages in hospitals meant for survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the Madhya Pradesh Health Services Directorate has cleared the appointment of 12 doctors. 

The doctors are among 15 spoken about in the report, whose posting had been cleared, only for some of them to be told informally later that the orders had been cancelled.  

In its July 29 report, NDTV had highlighted that of the 1,247 posts in gas relief hospitals, only 749 – or a little over half – are filled, leaving thousands of gas leak victims without adequate care.

On May 16, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department had advertised for the posts of 46 specialists and 69 medical officers and, on June 27, the Health Services Directorate had ordered the posting of only 15 medical officers including 5 specialists. Even among these, however, some were later told that the posting orders had been cancelled and one of them had said that they weren’t even given an explanation for the selection process getting stalled. 

Last year, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had threatened contempt proceedings against top officials for failing to fill vacancies and, during a hearing on July 30 this year, it had sought a status report from the Gas Relief Department by Wednesday

The appointments were made on Tuesday and the Health Services Directorate informed a high court bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf about them during a hearing on Wednesday. Senior lawyer Anshuman Singh also brought a monitoring committee’s report from May 2024 to the notice of the court, highlighting that gas victims suffering from cancer were not receiving timely treatment due to inaction on the part of the authorities. 

The court ordered that there should be no delay or cessation in the treatment of any gas victims and asked both the state and central governments to file a reply. 

Rachna Dhingra, a social worker advocating for gas victims, termed the appointments a significant victory.  “The gas victims will now be able to get surgeries done which had been pending for years because of a lack of surgeons and anesthesiologists at gas relief hospitals,” she said. 

A poignant statue commemorating the Bhopal gas tragedy – a child clinging to its mother — stands near the infamous Union Carbide factory. Dutch artist Ruth Waterman sculpted this statue in 1985, moved by the tragedy and her parents’ deaths in a Nazi gas chamber. Forty years on, thousands of survivors of Bhopal tragedy continue to suffer, their health deteriorating with insufficient medical care. Nearly half the allotted posts of doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff in gas relief hospitals lie vacant, despite orders from the state High Court and the Supreme Court to appoint staff.

Of the 1,247 posts in gas relief hospitals – only 749, a little over half, are filled. On May 16, 2024, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department advertised for 46 specialists and 69 medical officers. On June 27, 2024, the Health Services Directorate ordered the posting of only 15 medical officers including 5 specialists. 

Since then, many doctors have been informally told that these orders have been cancelled. 

Sources reveal that some doctors were informed by the Cabinet Minister that their selection order was void. Dr Pratap Singh whose wife was selected, asserted that many doctors applied for deputation, but the selection process stalled without explanation.

Despite a High Court directive on November 30, 2023, threatening contempt proceedings against top officials for failing to fill vacancies, little progress has been made. The Health Department’s May 16 advertisement yielded only 15 appointed doctors, and even that list was halted.

The absence of specialist doctors, including anaesthesiologists, hinders surgical procedures in gas relief hospitals. Medical Minister Rajendra Shukla said, “Gas relief hospitals receive regular appointments. We aim to resolve these issues.”

“Fifteen doctors have been appointed across eight hospitals, and more appointments will follow within ten days,” said state minister Vijay Shah.

On the ground, little has changed. 

Noor Jahan, a resident of Arif Nagar, struggles with severe health problems. “My young son died due to the gas; he was just two years old,” she recalled. “Now, I have knee pain, diabetes, and blood pressure issues. The hospitals have long queues, no doctors, and no medicines,” she said.

Displaying medical reports from a private hospital, Kammo Begum, another survivor, said, “I suffer from headaches and walking difficulties. Waiting for hours in a government hospital is beyond my capacity”.

Meena Panthi, who lost her entire family in the tragedy, shared her frustration. “I have heel pain and breathlessness. The Gas Relief Hospital only prescribes medicines from a distance, they never conduct thorough examinations,” she said.

Forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, its toxic waste cocktail is brewing afresh. About 350 metric tons of hazardous waste from the Union Carbide factory is set to be disposed of at the Treatment Storage Disposal Facility in Pithampur, Indore. The facility, though, has failed six previous tests on whether it can contain the emission which poses a significant cancer risk. And the cost will be far higher.

Twelve years ago, a German company, GIZ, offered to cart off the waste to Germany and dispose of it for Rs 22 crore. Disposing of the waste will now cost Rs 126 crore — six-times the previous estimate.

The cost to health could be beyond math. The quantity to be disposed represents just 5 per cent of the total hazardous waste. But experts have warned that it could release large amounts of organochlorine, dioxins, and furans — carcinogenic chemicals that are extremely harmful to humans and the environment. The incineration site in Pithampur has several villages within a distance of 2 km.

The World Health Organization has also warned that incineration at a faulty site could cause cancer.

“In the past, we protested against burning this waste. The then Chief Minister and Environment Minister assured us it wouldn’t happen here. Despite these assurances, the waste is now set to be incinerated in Pithampur, a process that will take six months. If this happens, we will protest,” said Gautam Kothar, the coordinator of the Lok Maitri Sansthan, an NGO.

This plan has been in the pipeline for long. But in 2012, the Madhya Pradesh government filed a petition in the Supreme Court, opposing it. The same year, at a cabinet meeting in Bhopal, former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur and then Environment Minister Jayant Malaiya strongly opposed incinerating the waste in Pithampur, fearing contamination of Yashwant Sagar Dam and Tarapura village.

No one was ready to take on the waste.

In 2007, Gujarat refused to incinerate Bhopal’s waste despite financial incentives. In 2011, Maharashtra declined DRDO’s proposal to incinerate the waste in Nagpur. Andhra Pradesh too refused to accept the waste.

“After I became the minister, we took a budget from the Government of India for the waste. We are making efforts with the centre, working with the cooperation of the central government. Tenders were issued for its execution even before I became the minister. Our expectation is that all that the waste should be burnt within a year. There is a decision regarding burning of the waste, and we cannot do anything about it,” said Kunwar Vijay Shah, Minister, Gas Relief and Rehabilitation.

Lying for 40 years, the waste has contaminated soil and groundwater and pose a huge risk to generations. Data shows that from 2004 to 2018, toxic waste polluted groundwater in 42 settlements around the Union Carbide factory. In the last five years alone, the contamination has spread to 29 more settlements.

Deaths, survival, and challenges

While official figures of the death count vary – the central government pegs it at 5,295 while Madhya Pradesh cites 15,342, and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) estimates it to be 25,000 – the true extent of the tragedy goes beyond numbers.

Survivors are forced to live with the lingering effects of the disaster, facing health issues and inadequate support.

The groundwater of Brij Vihar Colony — located around 3 km from the Union Carbide factory — has been severely polluted by the factory’s toxic waste. Arif Nagar, right across the Union Carbide factory, is still suffering from the aftereffects. Thousands of gas victims, their children, and grandchildren continue to be affected. Many children are born with mental and physical disabilities, and families cannot afford the necessary medical treatment.

The water in the affected areas is so contaminated that it leaves white marks and crusts on buckets and coolers within weeks. Residents report an increase in diabetes, heart attacks, and other serious health conditions.

From 2004 to 2018, toxic waste poisoned the groundwater of 42 settlements around the factory. Despite the Supreme Court’s order to provide clean water, the contamination has spread to 29 more settlements in the last five years.

“The hard water caused me to have a heart attack,” said Bhagwati Prasad Pandey, a resident of Bhopal’s Brij Vihar Colony. “My family and the entire neighbourhood are suffering. The municipal corporation was ordered to provide clean water, but they refused, citing that it is a private colony.”

“Since this colony was built, the water has been contaminated. Tests revealed heavy metals. Drinking this water has caused gallbladder issues, kidney stones, and skin infections. Despite multiple complaints, the municipal corporation has not provided clean water,” said RS Pal, another resident.

Arif Nagar settlement, located right in front of Union Carbide, is a grim testament to the enduring impact of the disaster. Residents here continue to suffer from the contamination.

Amina, a resident, shares her heart-breaking story, “The water was so bad that many parts of the body were completely damaged. At the time of my child’s birth, the doctor had said either the child will survive or the mother. Three years later, we came to know that he can neither speak nor hear. We are from a poor family, we face a lot of problems. Today, everyone in our house is sick because of water.”

Danu Singh and Aashiya are among the many parents who bring their children and grandchildren suffering from severe health issues. Most of these children cannot speak or hear and communicate through gestures.

“The water is so bad that the food is not digested, there is constant vomiting. Our child is also mentally very weak, his hands and legs do not move,” Mr Singh explains.

Aashiya adds, “Ever since my child was born, he has been mentally very weak. He had seizures in childhood. He is very weak. Sometimes, he has fever, sometimes, he has stomach pain. The water caused so much trouble that the child’s liver was expelling water. His stomach had become as hard as stone.”

In 2014, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) offered to assess the toxic waste, but the government ignored the offer.

Kamla, a resident, says, “It has been 30 years, but even today I get itching and it does not go away for a long time.”

Another resident, Batham, recounts, “We are facing troubles ever since the gas leak. Neither do we get proper water, nor are we able to live comfortably. Even after so many years, we have to take medicines. The water coming here is contaminated, it is causing many diseases.”

“My whole family was there when this incident happened. We all started running as the gas level increased. We had to face many problems due to this gas. Even now there is pain, burning sensation in the eyes, blood pressure, and shortness of breath. Due to contamination of water, there was pain and burning sensation in the stomach. We have to collect water from different places. My grandson is six years old, but even today he has difficulty in walking, sitting, and speaking properly,” shares Chandrama Devi, a resident.

Experts believe Union Carbide and Dow Chemical should be held accountable under the Polluter Pays Principle for the disposal of this toxic waste, but no action has been taken against these companies, which claim they are not subject to Indian courts.