Despite warnings and directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), 337 metric tonnes (MT) of hazardous waste stored on the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) premises — the site of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy — is yet to be disposed of, according to a report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) submitted to the green court.
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Trial incineration
The site, which earlier contained 346 MT of hazardous matter, had in August 2015 incinerated around 10 MT of waste on a trial basis at a facility in Pithampur. Subsequently, the Madhya Pradesh government floated a request for proposal inviting bids to clear the remaining waste. Since then, there has been little progress.
According to the CPCB report, an oversight committee meeting on June 19 chaired by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav recommended the Department of Expenditure to release ₹126 crore to the M.P. government for remediation and disposal of the 337 MT of toxic waste. At the meeting, Atul Narayan Vaidya, Director, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), said “it was important to dispose of” the waste, according to the report dated July 30.
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It also noted that as per a 2009 joint study by NEERI and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), the UCIL site contains about 1 million tonnes of contaminated soil, around 1 tonnes of mercury spillage, and nearly 150 tonnes of underground dumps. Subsequently, another committee recommended a comprehensive assessment.
In 2022, an NGT-appointed committee had found the “possibility of contamination of soil” and suggested “speedy disposal” of the waste.
In March that year, citing “serious unsatisfactory” state of affairs as well as “apathy” and “failure” of the authorities concerned, the green court ordered the State government and other agencies to take action within six months.
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Rachna Dhingra, an activist with Bhopal Group for Information and Action, an NGO representing the victims of the Bhopal disaster, told The Hindu, “This 337 MT is only 0.05% of the total toxic waste. Even this is not being properly disposed off. The main waste is still buried in 23 unlined pits within the UCIL premises and thousands of tonnes of toxic waste in is the solar evaporation pond 400 metres north of the plant.”
“Unless all this waste is properly disposed of, it will continue to pollute groundwater and soil and it will keep on spreading,” she added.”
The now-defunct UCIL was involved in production of carbamate pesticides and associated intermediate chemicals. It was closed down in December 1984 after the leakage of methyl isocyanate in the form of vapours, killing hundreds.