Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Why is Madhya Pradesh disposing of toxic waste 40 years later?

About forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Madhya Pradesh government has started the process to dispose of the 337 metric tonnes (MT) of toxic waste stored in the abandoned Union Carbide facility. This comes after the Central government allocated Rs 126 crore for incinerating the waste.

However, the decision to burn the waste in Indore’s Pithampur has sparked concerns about the health and environmental risks.

Let’s take a closer look.

1984 Bhopal gas tragedy

Bhopal witnessed one of the biggest industrial disasters on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.

Highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from American company Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in the Madhya Pradesh capital. Over 5,000 died, while another 5,68,292 suffered injuries in Bhopal.

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The victims were exposed to the poisonous gas, with most complaining of breathing issues, coughing, and irritation in the eyes and skin.

It is one of the worst humanitarian and environmental disasters in the world. Thousands of survivors of the industrial disaster have said they and their families are still suffering from chronic health problems due to the leak and the leftover toxic waste.

The Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), is now part of Dow Chemicals. The survivors want just compensation from the company. However, last year, the Supreme Court rejected the Centre’s curative petition seeking UCC’s successor firms to pay additional compensation to victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

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Toxic waste at Union Carbide factory

Union Carbide regularly dumped highly toxic chemical waste inside and outside their factory premises in Bhopal for 15 years before the disaster.

According to a government-commissioned study in 2010, there are 11 lakh tonnes of contaminated soil, one tonne of mercury, and nearly 150 tonnes of underground dumps in the factory premises, reported The Hindu.

However, the Central government is funding the disposal of just 337 tonnes of waste collected 18 years ago and stored in a shed in the UCIL’s facility.

Why is the hazardous waste still there?

In 2004, the convener of Bhopal Zahreeli Gas Sangharsh Samiti, Alok Pratap Singh, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Madhya Pradesh High Court to hold Dow Chemicals responsible for the pollution at the disaster site and seek immediate clean-up, as per an Indian Express report.

A task force headed by the Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India was set up by the court.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) experts selected a world-class incinerator owned by Bharuch Enviro-Infrastructure Limited (BEIL) in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar in 2005 for safely destroying the waste. However, this led to protests in the state in 2007 and the plan was eventually ditched.

The task force identified other Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF) sites including Dungigal in Hyderabad and Taloja in Mumbai.

In 2010, the Supreme Court allowed the incineration of 346MT of toxic waste at the TSDF in Madhya Pradesh’s Pithampur, after a successful trial run.

Two years later, the Madhya Pradesh government filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court arguing that the “facility is not technically sound for incineration of the Bhopal gas toxic waste which is more hazardous in comparison to industrial waste.”

The same year, German company GIZ which had submitted a proposal to transport and incinerate 346 metric tonnes of this waste in Hamburg for Rs 25 crore withdrew its offer after protests in its country.

In 2015, the Centre carried out a trial run at the Pithampur TSDF but had to shelve further plans after residents opposed. Amid a lack of consensus between the Centre and the state, there was no progress for seven years in the matter, reported Indian Express.

As per an NDTV report, six out of seven test runs at the Pithampur facility were unsuccessful, leading to the release of toxic chemicals.

In March this year, the Centre disbursed Rs 126 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for the disposal of 337 tonnes of hazardous waste.

Pithampur Industrial Waste Management Private Limited has been finalised for the task through an auction process, reported Deccan Chronicle. The Madhya Pradesh Department of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation (BGTRR) will supervise the transportation of the waste from the Union Carbide facility to the Pithampur facility, where it will be incinerated.

The process will take an estimated 180 days, as per Indian Express. Pithampur Industrial Society president Gautam Kothari told Deccan Chronicle that the capacity of the Pithampur incineration is two MT per hour. He said it would take at least 165 days for the destruction of 337 MT of toxic waste.

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Risks of disposing of the waste

There are concerns about the emissions released from the incineration of toxic waste posing health risks.

A 2022 CPCB report had found that residents had been exposed to a high level of dioxins and furans, chemical pollutants formed as a by-product of burning the waste, during six out of seven trial runs.

As per the NDTV report, the incineration could lead to the release of organochlorines in large quantities and carcinogenic chemicals such as dioxins and furans, which might affect the health of local residents and the environment.

Dioxins “are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

With input from agencies