You can see the trucks neatly parked in a row. You can also see policemen lounging around inside and outside the Pithampur premises of Re Sustainability Limited—the company that has been tasked to incinerate 358 tonnes of toxic waste from the site of Union Carbide’s Bhopal factory—where a massive gas leak killed 8,000 persons within three days of the December 3, 1984, disaster.
The 12 trucks, which used a corridor to bring the Bhopal factory waste to Pithampur, can be seen clearly from the road that snakes around the Re Sustainability unit. When this writer visited the site on January 6, the trucks were still to be unloaded, and the policemen were spared the ire of protesters demanding a stop to the process like on January 3.
Initially, the waste from the Union Carbide unit in Bhopal, about 220 km from Pithampur, was estimated to be 337 tonnes but when it was loaded, it amounted to 358 tonnes, Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anurag Jain told reporters on January 4.
In the forenoon of January 6, everyone—residents and policemen—was waiting for word from the Madhya Pradesh High Court hearing the waste disposal case. The general sentiment before the details of the order came in was that the Court would give more time. In the end, that is exactly what happened. A bench headed by Chief Justice Suresh K. Kait gave time until February 18 to comply with its December 3 order calling for cleaning up the site of the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal.
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Moti Lal, a resident of Tarpura village that kisses the boundary of the Re Sustainability plant, asks me, “What has the court said today? Our future is uncertain. There is a lack of trust in the waste disposal process.” I inform him that the court has extended the deadline for compliance with its order by six weeks. He just nods in response.
As one waited to speak to a Re Sustainability official, this reporter got talking to several policemen waiting outside, many of them on their phones with time to kill. Some of them were from districts outside Dhar, of which Pithampur is a part.
Tarpura village residents, who primarily earn income by renting rooms to industrial workers, fear they cannot relocate despite their safety concerns.
| Photo Credit:
Amit Baruah
A junior police official starts talking to me. It’s not enough for civil servants and policemen to assure the public that the waste disposal process is safe, he told me. The scientists from Re Sustainability should talk to the public and assure them that the waste disposal process is safe and secure.
It’s really the crux of the problem. The protests and the attempted self-immolation attempt by two men showed clearly that there was a lack of trust in the waste disposal process. It’s also true that the civil administration is aware of the problem and took some members of the public inside to explain that there was no truth to a rumour that one of the containers had gone missing after being transported to Pithampur.
Walking around Tarpura village, one can see the fear on people’s faces. “We can’t go anywhere. Our great-grandparents are from this village. We have no other place to go to. We have to live and die here,” a woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, told this reporter.
A bunch of young men sit around smoking in Tarpura, their motorbikes parked close by. Unusually, one also sees cars parked almost in every second third or fourth house. The business model is rather simple. Since Pithampur is a big industrial hub, especially for automobiles, villagers have constructed rooms to let out to migrant workers. The going rate appears to be Rs. 2,000 a month for a single room. Small shops also operate from many of the little houses that dot the village.
Chaman Chopra, a local corporator from the area, shares the apprehensions of his fellow villagers. He echoes the sentiments of the woman who chose to protect her identity. “We are locals, where will we go,” Chopra tells me. By now, they have come to know that the High Court has pushed back the deadline for the incineration of the waste.
Local police officials suggest that scientists from Re Sustainability should engage with the public to address safety concerns and build trust.
| Photo Credit:
Amit Baruah
“I think there are still some doubts [in the minds of people] and we are trying to provide the correct information,” Priyank Mishra, Collector of the Dhar district, told Frontline. Mishra categorically denied that migrant labourers had left villages around the factory in Pithampur due to fears that incinerating the waste would lead to a public health hazard when asked whether workers were leaving their rented premises.
Mishra said it would set a wrong precedent if the hazardous waste from the Union Carbide plant was not incinerated. He pointed out that it was for the first time such an exercise was being undertaken. “It [the disposal] is all being done as per the Acts and rules,” the Collector added.
High Court order
The push to neutralise the Bhopal waste came from the December 3 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which was scathing in its tone and tenor. “We have perused the various orders passed by this Court on 30.03.2005, 13.05.2005, and 23.06.2005 and thereafter the recently passed order dated 11.09.2024. Though some steps have been taken but they are minimal and cannot be appreciated for the reasons that the present petition is of the year 2004 and almost 20 years have elapsed but the respondents are at first stage…”
The waste arrived at Pithampur in 12 trucks, which are currently parked at the Re Sustainability premises while awaiting disposal authorization.
| Photo Credit:
Amit Baruah
“This is a really sorry state of affairs because the removal of toxic waste from the plant site, decommissioning the MIC [Methyl isocyanate] and Sevin plants and removal of contaminants that have spread in the surrounding soil and groundwater are of the paramount requirement for the safety of the general public of Bhopal city. Incidentally, the MIC gas disaster at Bhopal took place this very date, exactly 40 years ago,” the Court stated.
“In view of the above, we hereby direct that the Principal Secretary, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department to perform its statutory obligations and duties under the environmental laws of this country. We further direct immediate clean-up of the Union Carbide Factory site at Bhopal and to take all remedial measures for removal and safe disposal of the entire toxic waste/material from the area concerned,” the Court added.
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Without the Court’s intervention, it’s unlikely that the waste would have been moved to Pithampur. It’s also likely that despite all the apprehensions, the waste will be disposed of now that it has been shifted to the toxic waste disposal unit. Asked for a comment on the status of the disposal, Ramesh Bitra, head of corporate communications for Re Sustainability Limited, said it was up to the administration to speak about what was going on. “We have no comment,” he told Frontline.
The toxic waste disposal process is not just about incineration but an exercise in public information. Ideally, the company and its scientists, as well as the state pollution control authorities, should be out and about in the public domain reassuring people about the process. The fact, however, is that major apprehensions about what will happen when the Bhopal waste is burnt, linger. Not just in Pithampur but in adjoining Indore as well. Everyone will watch where the wind blows (if) and when the waste is finally incinerated.
Amit Baruah is a former Diplomatic Correspondent of The Hindu.
