Was there more to the Bhopal Gas Disaster than the leaking of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL)? The tragedy on the intervening night Of December 2-3, 1984, left at least 3,787 dead (unofficial figures put the toll at 16,000) and 558,125 casualties. It was by far the worst industrial disaster in history. Before Bhopal, in April 1942, the Benxihu Colliery explosion in China was the most catastrophic that claimed 1,549 lives.

Given the scale and magnitude of the tragedy, investigations for over a decade after the accident primarily focussed on the MIC leak. It was much later that attention turned to the effects of hazardous chemicals, other than MIC and its derivatives, which may have contaminated areas around the UCIL factory much prior to the gas leak in 1984.

In fact, it came to light only in the latter half of the 1990s that the slow poisoning of soil and groundwater through the dumping of toxic waste in and around the pesticide factory began as far back as 1969. That was the year UCIL started operations in Bhopal. This revelation came while organisations supporting the cause of the Bhopal gas victims (henceforth referred to as ‘victims’ organisations’) were pursuing the criminal case against the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), UCIL and accused officials of these companies.

One of the three petitions filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Bhopal on July 4, 1994 to expedite cases against the accused related to a news report about the attempt by the UCIL management to surreptitiously dismantle and move machine parts and other usable items from its Bhopal plant. The petitions were filed by the following victims’ organisations: the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS), the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS).

The petitioners’ plea was that the UCIL management’s action amounted to tampering with vital evidence and that the management should be restrained from any dismantling. The intervention by the petitioners proved useful although the CJM dismissed the petition on the ground that the case against UCIL was then pending before the Bhopal Session’s Court.

But before the petition was disposed, pressure from the victims’ organisations compelled the Madhya Pradesh government to order the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) to inspect the closed UCIL plant. This exercise revealed that 44 metric tonnes (MT) of residues generated during the manufacture of the pesticide “Sevin” and 2.5 MT of another chemical, alpha naphthol, collected in drums, troughs and bags were stored in open areas within the plant premises.

Expert Committee Findings

Subsequently, MPPCB constituted an Expert Committee in July 1994 to advise the Board on the treatment and safe disposal of the waste and toxic chemicals. The Committee visited the factory in May 1995 and recommended the shifting of the hazardous wastes to a safer site within the premises. It also stressed the need for exploratory studies to evaluate various treatment and disposal alternatives. The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, were retained by the MPPCB to conduct the studies.

Meanwhile, the MPPCB had also approached the CJM, Bhopal, for permission to shift the residues to a safer place within the plant premises. The Court sought the views of the CBI investigating the gas leak case. The agency approached the Ministry of Environment and Forests for advice. Consequently, the Ministry (vide Order No. F. No. 11-2-/96 – HSMD dated January 3, 1997) constituted another three-member Expert Committee with representatives from NEERI, IICT and MPPCB who visited the plant on October 15, 1997. The Committee observed that the drums and bags with hazardous chemicals were in a dilapidated condition and any attempt at shifting them outside the plant may result in spillage. It also observed that the residues after melting were spreading on the floor and outside the shed in which they were currently stored.

The victims’ organisations became aware of these facts from the copy of the Expert Committee’s inspection report submitted by the MPPCB to the CJM, Bhopal. One startling observation in the report caught their attention. To quote: “During the rainy season, the hazardous waste that had spilled may contaminate the water and spread to other areas.” This officially confirmed apprehensions expressed by victims’ organisations that for nearly three decades hazardous waste from the UCIL factory were leaching into the groundwater and contaminating it.

BGIA’s Report

In fact, in 1996, the Bhopal Group for Information and Action’s (BGIA) report titled The Toxic Legacy of Union Carbide in Bhopal had pointed out that during the operation of the factory between 1969 and 1977 all the effluents were dumped in an open pit near the eastern boundary wall of the plant. And from 1977 to 1984, the effluents were discharged into the Solar Evaporation Ponds (SEPs) constructed outside the northern boundary wall. The SEPs were lined with a film of polythene to prevent seepage. However, its effectiveness against a complex mix of corrosive substances was questionable.

Under the circumstances, the report noted that it was inevitable that toxins from the SEPs would have contaminated the groundwater in adjoining areas. Interestingly, BGIA had begun expressing apprehensions about this danger as early as 1990 when findings of tests carried out on soil and water samples from the vicinity of the closed UCIL plant had shown the presence of highly toxic and carcinogenic substances. Moreover, according to the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS), for several years hutment-dwellers residing near the UCIL factory had been complaining about the poor quality of drinking water drawn by hand-pumps and tube-wells.

Taking all these factors into consideration in May 1999, at the initiative of BGIA and BGPMUS, Greenpeace International carried out an investigation of the former UCIL site. Samples of soil were collected both from areas once used for waste disposal and from areas around the former Sevin Plant in the factory, where a ruptured and leaking storage tank was found. Groundwater samples were also collected from several wells located in the shanty settlements near the factory.

Greenpeace Study

Analysis of the samples for heavy metals and organic contaminants was carried out at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories based in the University of Exeter, UK. The findings titled The Bhopal Legacy was released in November 1999. It indicated substantial and, in some locations, severe contamination of drinking water and soil with heavy metals and persistent organic contaminants.

According to the survey, samples collected from a drain directly beneath the former “Sevin” (carbaryl) formulation plant “contained free mercury at over 12 percent of the overall weight of the sample (between 20,000 and 6 million times higher than might be expected as background).”

The Greenpeace study further pointed out that: “Chromium, copper, nickel and lead were also present at elevated levels. The toxic organochlorines ‘hexachloroethane’ and ‘hexachlorobutadiene’ (HCBD), common constituents in solid wastes arising from the chlorinated chemical industry, were also found.”

The contamination was caused either during routine processes when the plant was operational from spillage and accidents or due to continued and ongoing release of chemicals from materials dumped or stored on site. To understand the full extent of the ongoing contamination, the study recommended that a more detailed and extensive survey be conducted urgently.

The Greenpeace report also pointed out that it was essential that steps be taken to reduce and eliminate further exposure of the communities surrounding the defunct plant to hazardous chemicals. For this the Report suggested the following:

“Contaminated wastes and soils must be safely collected and securely contained until such time as they can be effectively treated. Such treatment must entail the complete removal and isolation of toxic heavy metals from the materials and the complete destruction of all hazardous organic constituents. The treatment process selected for the purpose must operate in a closed-loop configuration, such that there is no release of the chemicals or their hazardous by-products into the environment.

“For contaminated groundwater, the ultimate goal should be the remediation of the aquifers. This may be achieved in part, by state-of-the-art filtration technology, which traps both volatile and semi-volatile organic contaminants, allowing their isolation, storage and treatment. In the short term, however, the priority and responsibility of the Government must be to provide clean drinking water to the communities and to prevent access to contaminated wells. Urgent action must also be taken to prevent further contamination of aquifers through proper containment of chemicals and contaminated materials both on and surrounding the site.”

The message was loud and clear. The impact of UCIL’s Bhopal plant on the environment and the health of the people residing in its vicinity had to be checked. For that a detailed action plan had to be drawn up and implemented, failing which new victims will be added to UCIL’s defunct pesticide plant in Bhopal.

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It is of utmost concern that the defunct pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) in Bhopal is being allowed to contaminate surrounding areas with toxic substances. There is now enough evidence and data to establish the scale and extent of the health-damage being perpetrated by the manufacturing facility that was shut down following the 1984 gas leak, which claimed thousands of lives.

In fact, the government must treat the pleas of various social organisations, health experts and environmentalists as an SOS call from the population residing in areas adjoining the plant to urgently decommission it.

While the preliminary Greenpeace report in 1999 gave an overview of the problem, more focused studies have been carried out by the Delhi-based voluntary organisation Srishti and the Peoples’ Science Institute (PSI), Dehradun. The objective of the Srishti study, commissioned by the ‘Fact-Finding Mission on Bhopal’, was to examine the movement of chemical pollutants from one level to another through the food chain.

As part of the survey, samples of soil and groundwater from near the UCIL factory were collected in 1999-2000 and analysed at the Facility of Ecological and Analytical Testing (FEAT) laboratory of IIT, Kanpur. The report of the study conducted by Srishti, Surviving Bhopal: Toxic Present-Toxic Future, was released in January 2002.

It successfully recorded the movement of chemicals — used extensively in the UCIL factory — in the environment from one medium to another. It also revealed the bioaccumulation of toxicants from one level to another of the food chain. The results showed glaring evidence of contamination near the factory. Soil, groundwater, vegetables grown in the area, and even human breast milk investigated were found to be contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The Report noted:

“Another very significant aspect is that the human breast milk showed maximum concentration for VOCs [volatile organic compounds] and higher concentration of the pesticide HCH [hexachlorocyclohexane also known as benzene hexachloride or BHC]. It is evident that these carcinogenic toxics are bio-concentrated in the milk. Hence this poses a serious concern to infants, as it is the easiest and shortest route of exposure to a number of these suspected carcinogenic chemicals.”

The study clearly indicated that the UCIL factory is the source of the chemical contamination since most of the chemicals used in the factory are still present in the factory and its adjoining areas. Further, there are no other chemical industries that use the chemicals mentioned in the inventory within a 3-5 km radius from the factory. The Srishti study also made the pertinent observation that “exposure to chemical pollutants and heavy metals show multiple effects that include fever, diarrhoea, respiratory and nervous disorders and cancer.”

The PSI Study

The study undertaken between September 2001 and April 2002 for the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) by PSI, Dehradun, was to analyse the concentration of Mercury in groundwater near the former UCIL plant. Groundwater samples were collected from seven hand-pumps and seven tube-wells in residential areas. Samples were also collected from the Solar Evaporation Ponds in the factory and an open well. The samples were analysed at the PSI laboratory.

The PSI study confirmed the presence of toxic levels of Mercury in the samples. Exposure to high levels of Mercury can cause permanent damage to the brain and kidneys. Drawing upon the conclusions arrived by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the United States Public Health System, the PSI study stated that: “Mercury may affect many different areas in the brain and their associated functions, resulting in a variety of symptoms. These include personality changes (irritability, shyness, nervousness), tremors, changes in vision (constriction or narrowing of the visual field), deafness, muscle incoordination, loss of sensation, and difficulties with memory.”

The PSI study rightly concluded that: “The present situation in Bhopal results from a classical combination of corporate irresponsibility and governmental indifference. The problem of groundwater contamination at Bhopal compounds the miseries of the population already affected permanently due to the exposure to toxic MIC (methyl isocyanate) gas (in 1984).”

Legal Proceedings in the United States

Both Srishti and PSI were in broad agreement with the remedial plan suggested in the earlier study by Greenpeace. In this context, it must be pointed out that the organisations representing the victims maintain the view that the financial responsibility for any clean-up operation must be borne exclusively by the UCC and its current owners, Dow Chemicals, USA. A civil suit for fixing financial responsibility was filed before the New York Southern District Court on November 15, 1999, by the victims’ organisations with the aid of groups supporting the cause of the Bhopal victims in the US.

Both UCC (Union Carbide Corporation) USA, and Warren Anderson (Chairperson and CEO of UCC at the time of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy) were served notice and compelled to appear in court as respondents. In the process, UCC had to submit documents that shed light on major decisions regarding the dumping of toxic waste at UCI’s Bhopal plant. While the District Court dismissed the petition in August 2000, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit returned the case to the District Court on November 15, 2001, directing it to consider the case afresh.

However, on March 18, 2003, the New York Southern District Court dismissed the amended petition yet again forcing the victims’ groups to go in for another appeal. Thankfully, in its March 24, 2004, order, the Appeals Court noted: “…the District Court should be free to revisit its dismissal of the claim for plant-site remediation in the event that the Indian government or the State of Madhya Pradesh seeks to intervene in the action or otherwise urges the court to order such relief.”

After pressure was exerted on the Madhya Pradesh government and the Central government, the former informed the Government of India on June 7, 2004 that it had no objection to the clean-up and site remediation. The Central government agreed to submit a “no objection” letter to the New York District Court, which it did on June 27, 2004. However, the matter did not make much progress as the U.S. Courts of Appeals finally dismissed the petition on August 10, 2006. A fresh petition was filed in the name of Janki Bai Sahu, a survivor of the 1984 tragedy, which too was dismissed in June 2012. Subsequently, the US Courts of Appeals also dismissed the appeal against the District Court’s order. A separate petition filed in the name of Jagarnath Sahu was also dismissed on 24 May 2016.

Meanwhile, a writ petition (WP No.2802 of 2004) was filed before the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur on July 23, 2004 to expedite the clean-up of the contaminated site in Bhopal. Three organisations –Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS), the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) — were interveners in the matter. Subsequently, the Union of India filed a curative petition (No.345-347 of 2010) before the Supreme Court against the Bhopal Settlement Order of February 1989. The petition included a claim for compensation from Dow Inc to remediate the contaminated site in Bhopal.

Further Evidence

While matters were embroiled in various courts, new studies further confirmed the threat posed by the UCIL plant in Bhopal. In addition to its earlier study, Greenpeace carried out another in 2002. Its findings had this revelation:

“Local populations are vulnerable to exposure to all the chemicals found in this study through routes such as direct contact with contaminated soil or inhalation of contaminated dust. The HCH [hexachlorocyclohexane] and other organochlorines may moreover be passed on in the milk of cattle that the locals graze on the site. Many local residents are already suffering the after-effects of exposure to the gas release…Further chemical exposure from the SEPs and the stockpiles is unacceptable.”

In addition, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, carried out a joint study in 2010. The preliminary findings of the study showed that “The total volume of contaminated soil (within and outside UCIL premises) is estimated to be 6,50,000 m. Assuming a bulk density of 1.7 gm/cc of soil, the total quantum of contaminated soil requiring remediation amounts to 11,00,000 MT.”

The NEERI/NGRI report highlighted the magnitude of soil contamination. This prompted the Chairman of the Bhopal Environmental Remediation Oversight Committee and the Minister of State, Ministry of Environment and Forests, to invite comments from the Bhopal survivors’ organisations. On July 9, 2010, a critical review of the NEERI/NGRI reports was prepared and submitted to the Government. It had the following key recommendations:

• • Detailed study and cataloging of all substances used on-site, plus consideration of likely breakdown products of primary contaminants.
  • Development of a conceptual site model and a formal sampling and analysis plan, including provision for leachate testing and any other tests that may help inform the remediation method choice.
  • Correct presentation of analytical results and release of all raw data.
  • Detailed health and safety plan for investigation and decommissioning of the plant.
  • Site investigation to consider the full shallow and deep soil horizon, with guidance drawn from the conceptual site model.
  • Site investigation to include an element of ‘grid’ investigation (it is not unusual for investigations of this nature to be based on a 25m or 50m grid).
  • Dedicated monitoring wells to be designed and drilled solely for the purpose of investigating the groundwater body (or bodies) inside and outside the facility.
  • Calibration of conceptual site model following site investigation.
  • Risk-based derivation of remedial targets.
  • Remediation options appraisal (considering all potentially successful remediation methods) and trials as necessary.

Unfortunately, for the last ten years, there has been no further progress other than the holding of a preliminary workshop in Delhi on April 25-26, 2013 hosted by the Centre for Environment & Science (CSE) in which most stakeholders (except the Madhya Pradesh government) participated for working out an action plan for remediating the contaminated site at Bhopal.

Fresh attempts are being made to prevail upon the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers as well as the Prime Minister’s Office to take immediate steps to convene a meeting of all stakeholders. It must include the governments at the Centre and Madhya Pradesh state, the United Nations Environment Programme, international and Indian scientific organisations, representatives of the chemical industry and concerned voluntary organisations. An action plan has to be urgently chalked out to remediate the contaminated site in and around the UCIL plant in a time-bound manner.

(N.D. Jayaprakash is co-convener of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS), an organisation working for the rights of the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The article was originally published in The Leaflet.)