PITHAMPUR ON WARPATH AS BHOPAL'S TOXIC UNION CARBIDE HEADACHE HOMES IN

SHIFTING TOXIC WASTE OUT OF BHOPAL'S ILL-FATED UNION CARBIDE PLANT AFTER FOUR DECADES THROUGH A JUDICIAL FIAT WITHOUT PUBLIC HEARING HAS UPSET RESIDENTS OF PITHAMPUR AND INDORE, AS THEY FEAR ITS INCINERATION COULD ADVERSELY AFFECT THEIR WATER BODIES

- ANURAAG SINGH

Forty years after a late-night leak of noxious methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas at the Union Carbide India Limited’s (UCIL) pesticide plant killed over 5,500 people in its vicinity in Bhopal and cast its adverse shadow on successive generations, its toxic waste was finally shifted out of Bhopal on January 1. Twelve specially designed, sealed, leak-proof, fire-resistant and GPS tracking-enabled containers, carrying 358 metric tonnes of toxic waste were escorted by police and emergency vehicles through a 250-km Green Corridor to the industrial town of Pithampur in Dhar district of western MP, around 30 km from India’s cleanest and the state’s most populated city, Indore.

The waste will be stored, treated and incinerated at a treatment-storage-disposal facility (TSDF) in the Pithampur Industrial Area. the transportation was necessitated following a December 3 order by the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that was hearing a petition filed way back in 2004 by Alok Pratap, a leader of the gas tragedy’s victims based in Bhopal. Pratap died in a road accident in 2015. the court gave the government four weeks to shift out the waste.

“We fail to understand that in spite of issuance of various directions from time to time by the Supreme Court as well as the MP High Court, pursuant to the waste transport-disposal plan of March 2024, till date no steps seem to have been taken to remove the toxic waste/material. they are still in a state of inertia, despite 40 years since the gas tragedy. though the plan has been sanctioned, contract awarded, still the authorities are inertia which may lead to another tragedy to take shape before acting further,” the high court said.

It warned that the failure to comply with the order will result in the prosecution of the Principal Secretary (Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and rehabilitation Department) for contempt of court.