Bhopal Gas Disaster Scar Never Healed

Newsclick Report

More than 3,700 people were killed and around 5,00,000 sustained respiratory diseases or were blinded when about 45 tonnes of methyl isocyanate leaked from the Indian subsidiary of the now-defunct American firm Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2 and 3 in 1984

Saturday marked 39 years of the horror when the poisonous gas spread through densely populated neighbourhoods around the plant, killed thousands immediately and forced tens of thousands of others to flee Madhya Pradesh’s capital.

Survivors still suffer: The survivors and their future generations are struggling with severe health issues. Several of them were diagnosed with cancer, tumours and tuberculosis. They are still fighting for medical support and compensation. Watch this NewsClick video.

No lessons learnt: The tragedy happened because all rules were flouted knowing that the system would protect the perpetrators if anything went wrong. D Raghunandan of the Delhi Science Forum explains how India bends its laws and bends over backwards to please US investors.

Justice delayed, denied: The disaster caused 25,000 deaths over the years—many of which could have been avoided. ND Jayaprakash of the Delhi Science Forum and Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti explain how the victims fought back and governments have ignored them and what must be done next in an interview with NewsClick.

One dead, Dozen ill: On January 12, a 60-year-old cancer patient died of hypothermia a month after the Railways demolished his house at Annu Nagar locality along with 346 makeshift houses. Three to four decades-old colonies barely 500 metres from the factory were demolished for laying Bhopal upline and loop line tracks, NewsClick’s Kashif Kakvi reports.

Speculative research: ND Jayaprakash, joint secretary, Delhi Science Forum and co-convener, Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti, analyses a study on the impact of the disaster on the surrounding area. He explains that some of the assumptions are erroneous and the methodology chosen for conducting the study is highly questionable.

COVID-19 hit survivors more: Every second death caused by the pandemic in Bhopal in the first phase was of a victim of the gas tragedy. Of the 450 deaths till October 18, 2020, 56% were survivors of the tragedy. The death rate among those exposed to the gas was 6.5 times more.

(Courtesy: Newsclick.)

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[Below is the text of a pamphlet brought out by activists in Pune in support of the struggle for Bhopal gas tragedy survivors for justice. It was first printed on 2 December 2006; much of it is still relevant today. We are reprinting it below. Editors, Janata.]

JOIN THE STRUGGLE FOR ‘NO MORE BHOPALS’!

• Support the struggle of Bhopal gas victims to bring Dow-Carbide to Justice!
• Don’t let huge Corporations get away with murder!!
• Don’t let MNCs destroy our our air-water-soil-forests!
• Fight to save our health-environment-livelihoods!!

Midnight, December 2, 1984… the world’s worst ever industrial disaster occurred in Bhopal. More than 27 tonnes of methyl isocyanate and other toxic gases leaked from US corporation Union Carbide’s pesticide plant, turning the narrow lanes of the city into a gas chamber. Over 8000 died in the first three days. They were probably the more fortunate ones, because the survivors suffered permanent injuries. Over one lakh were left with severely impaired lungs, eyes, reproductive and immune systems, and mental health. Since the disaster, well over 12,000 have died in a never-ending funeral procession… 15-20 still die every month from gas-related illnesses. Over 50,000 live on the brink of starvation, too ill to do any jobs. And now studies are starting to show effects of the poison in children born after the disaster.

A third world ‘accident’

The gas leak was waiting to happen. Union Carbide had designed the plant with inferior and unproven technology. Then, to enhance profits, the company went on a cost cutting drive: reducing personnel, adopting hazardous operating procedures, and cutting down on vital safety measures and plant maintenance. In 1982, a safety audit warned of a high potential for a gas leak. Workers injuries, gas leaks, even deaths predated the disaster. But all these warnings were ignored, in the lust for profits. On the night of the disaster, none of the six safety systems designed to prevent or contain a leak were working!

Following the gas leak, in another murderous act, Carbide refused to release information on the nature of the leaked gases, claiming it was a trade secret, and also the treatment procedures. Many lives could have been saved. But for multinational corporations (MNCs), profits are above people.

Carbide’s disappearing act

Ever since then, Union Carbide has tried to evade its liabilities in Bhopal. For refusing to appear before Indian courts, it was declared an ‘absconder’ in 1992. To continue doing business in India, it tried all kinds of tricks. In 2001, in a final act of disappearance, it merged with Dow Chemicals, USA, another notorious MNC responsible for some of the most terrible environmental disasters in the world. Dow thereby inherited the pending liabilities of Union Carbide. But while it has accepted these in the US, it has simply refused to accept Carbide’s Bhopal liabilities. Shockingly, the Indian government stands with Dow! For the last two decades, the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have had to fight not just Dow-Carbide, but also the Indian government which has been more interested in currying favour with MNCs and their concubine governments rather than protecting the interests of its citizens.

The compensation drama

First the injury, then the insult! Initially, the government of India filed for $3000 million compensation against Carbide in court. But then in 1989 in a complete turnaround, it settled with Carbide for a fraction of that – just $470 million – and in return agreed to close all civil and criminal cases against the company! Each survivor got just $500, or Rs. 25,000!! Bhopalis fought the settlement, but ‘our’ Supreme Court too upheld it (although reinstating the criminal charges against Carbide and its officials). Defending the settlement, a Dow-Carbide spokesperson stated, “$500 is plenty good for an Indian.”

In 1996, despite overwhelming contrary evidence, the Supreme Court diluted charges against Indian officials of the company. Cocking a snook at our judiciary, Union Carbide and its CEO Warren Anderson, have simply refused to appear before Indian courts. A servile Indian government on its own attempted to dilute the charges against Anderson. Protests by Bhopal survivors forced it to drop the move.

In March this year (2006), the Bhopal gas survivors walked 800 kms from Bhopal to Delhi. There, they sat down on an indefinite hunger strike. Finally, the Prime Minister met them. But Manmohan Singh refused to give a commitment on seriously prosecuting Dow-Carbide, saying “We have to do business” and “India has to survive despite all these tragedies.” Whose government is it?

Dow-Carbide continues to kill …

After the gas leak, Union Carbide simply abandoned the plant, leaving behind over 5000 tonnes of toxic waste. This has seeped into the groundwater and poisoned wells and handpumps with chemicals known to cause cancer and genetic defects. Even mother’s milk has become poisoned. Yet Dow-Carbide has simply refused to accept responsibility for decontaminating the soil and water around the Bhopal plant.

After 22 years of sustained struggle, finally, in March this year, the PM promised to provide safe drinking water to the people living around the Carbide plant and take steps to decontaminate the area. Its taken 22 years for this… Considering the extent to which Indian rulers are groveling before MNCs today, it appears doubtful if the government will be able to force Dow-Carbide to pay for this clean up. In fact, the Central govt. has set up a special cell to facilitate Dow’s investments in India. In Maharashtra, Dow has set up a plant in Lote Parshuram (Ratnagiri district) to produce the notorious pesticide Dursban ─ banned for household use in the US because it stunts mental development of children. And now Dow has set up a silicone manufacturing plant in Ranjangaon, just 40 kms from Pune… this story is yet to unfold!

We are all living in Bhopal!

In a sense, we are all living in Bhopal. Because India’s rulers have now abandoned whatever little concern they had for the environment, and are creating conditions for the occurrence of a 1000 more Bhopals all over the country! It’s one of the consequences of the new orientation of the Indian economy, euphemistically called globalization.

Ever since India’s rulers began the globalization of the Indian economy, governments at the centre and the states have been desperately seeking to invite foreign MNCs to come and invest in the country. Contrary to claims of robust health of the Indian economy, the reality is that it has become totally dependent on inflow of foreign capital ─ if foreign investors start withdrawing their investments, the economy will simply collapse.

And so, in order to lure foreign investors into investing their billions in the country, the government is offering them the most extraordinary sops. In the name of ‘development’, foreign MNCs and their Indian collaborators, the big private Indian corporates, are being allowed to cut down entire forests, destroy coastal lands in the name of aquaculture, over-exploit groundwater, pollute our seas-rivers-soil-groundwater-air, indulge in indiscriminate mining, uproot entire villages, destroy livelihoods of people, damage the health of not just the living but also of those yet to be born. Here are some examples:

• Most countries, including the European Union and USA, have banned the use of all forms of asbestos, which causes asbestosis and lung cancer. However, under pressure from the Rs.2000 crore asbestos cement industy, the government of India refuses to ban it, and it continues to be used widely in India. India imported 3 lakh tons of asbestos in 2006 alone!!
• Over 70% of the electronic waste (broken computers, TV sets, mobile phones, etc) generated in the developed world comes to Delhi! Their recycling is profitable, but environmentally very destructive. India is also the toxic waste dump of world shipping. Toxic ships from around the world, contaminated with thousands of tons of deadly chemicals, are brought to Alang in Gujarat, the world’s largest ship-breaking yard, to be broken up. As if this was not enough, the country is also becoming the household waste dump of the developed countries. Recycling rubbish in the developed countries is a complicated and costly affair. Shipping it to India is much less of a hassle, it is also much cheaper. And so Great Britain and USA are shipping their garbage to India.
• Big business houses are constructing and operating factories and mines in blatant violation of environmental laws. Big industries like Vedanta Alumina (Orissa), Sterlite (Tuticorin, TN), Jindal Steel (Chattisgarh) first constructed the factory, then commenced production, and were then accorded backdated permission. Chemplast’s PVC factory in Mettur, Tamilnadu, dumps its dioxin-laden toxic effluents into the Kaveri River, polluting drinking water of several villages. Thousands living near SIPCOT chemical industrial estate in Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, are virtually living in a gas chamber. Pollution by Oswal Chemicals (Paradip, Orissa) is devastating lives of over 1 lakh people living around the plant.
• Some of the world’s most polluted toxic hotspots are in India. The Eloor industrial estate near Cochin, Kerala is one such. In the Sukinda Valley in Orissa, one-fourth of the people suffer from pollution-induced diseases. The chemical industry belt between Vapi and Ahmedabad in Gujarat is a toxic nightmare: mercury levels in groundwater are 96 times higher than safety levels….
• The bottling plants of Coca Cola and PepsiCo draw out lakhs of litres of groundwater every day, causing water shortages for people; and they dump their toxic wastes in nearby fields, destroying agriculture, causing diseases.
• Indiscriminate industrialization has caused the country’s dense forest cover to shrink by 26,000 sq.km. during 2001-03; groundwater in 22 industrialized zones of Maharashtra has become unfit for drinking due to high bacteriological and heavy metal contamination.

Despite the immensity of the environmental crisis, at the behest of the World Bank and MNCs our government has recently announced a National Environment Policy that further relaxes environmental regulations to facilitate foreign investment. Environmental clearance will become less transparent and scope for public participation will be reduced. Civil liability will replace criminal liability for corporate polluters, implying a polluter can pay to pollute. Worse, rules are being relaxed so that MNCs (like Dow-Carbide) will no longer be responsible for the actions of their subsidiaries in India, even if the subsidiary is fully owned and controlled by the foreign parent. Dollars, O dollars, O dollars-dollars-dollars…

People fight back, we must join this struggle!!

People have not been taking this assault on their lives lying down; they have been waging militant struggles. And they have won significant victories too. The Coca Cola plant in Plachimada has shut down. Since January 2, 2006, when 13 adivasis were gunned down by Orissa police to make way for a Tata Steel factory in Kalinganagar, the people of the region have shut off a highway from Daitari to Paradip; the ‘Janta Curfew’ remains in effect till date.

The courageous struggle of the Bhopal survivors has come to symbolize all these struggles. Their demand ‘No business for Dow-Carbide in India till it does justice in Bhopal’, is actually a struggle against the very path of development being taken by India’s rulers, which gives priority only to foreign investment and giant projects while destroying our air-water-rivers-forests-health-livelihoods. It’s also a struggle for genuine democracy, based on equal rights for all, on equality before the law from high corporate officials to the poorest tribals, and above all on everyone’s right to safe environment and decent livelihood.

Friends in Pune… we must join the struggle for Justice in Bhopal. As a first step, we demand that the Maharashtra government halt the operation of Dow-Carbide’s plant in Ranjangaon till the company addresses its liabilities in Bhopal… and do participate heartily in the 3-day program organized as a part of the ‘No More Bhopals’ Campaign in Pune on June 16-18, 2006.

‘No More Bhopals’ Forum, Pune

(Contact: Rishikesh, Mobile: 94235 07864)