Trial disposal of Union Carbide waste begins as SC rejects plea
The first trial run for the incineration of toxic waste from the Bhopal Gas tragedy site at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district began on Thursday.
The first trial run for the incineration of toxic waste from the Bhopal Gas tragedy site at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district began on Thursday, hours after the Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking to stall the disposal over concerns of potential health risks to local residents and the possibility of soil and water contamination.
The top court bench passed the order after noting that a committee of experts, including the director of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the director of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), and representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), was overseeing the transportation and disposal of 337 tonne of toxic waste from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) site.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Chinmay Mishra, a resident of Indore, who challenged the Madhya Pradesh high court’s December 3, 2024 decision approving trial runs for the disposal of waste at the Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF) in Pithampur.
Following the Supreme Court, the first trial started on Thursday night, with two additional runs scheduled for March 4 and 10. Each trial will involve the incineration of 10 tonne of waste.
Indore divisional commissioner Deepak Kumar said toxic waste at Pithampur was unloaded from containers and mixed with chemicals. “The process started after the Supreme Court order on Thursday,” he said. “The incinerator will require 12 hours to reach temperature of 800 degree Celsius following which the waste would be burnt. The main process will take place on Friday.”
The bench comprising of justice Augustine George Masih and headed by justice Bhushan R. Gavai said, “NEERI is the most recognised and reputed organisation in the country dealing with environment aspects.”
The court added the NGRI is also a reputed institution with expertise in geophysical matters.
The petitioner represented by senior advocates Devadatt Kamat and Sarvam Ritam Khare said that having experts in the committee is not enough as their grievance is that the committee’s recommendations are not being followed on the ground.
The court had instructed the Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday to outline the safety measures being implemented to prevent harm to the local population. In response, the state filed an affidavit on Wednesday, stating that all measures recommended by the Task Force Committee, which includes experts from NEERI, NGRI, and senior officials from the CPCB and state pollution board, have been put in place.
Senior advocate Nachiketa Joshi, representing the state as its additional advocate general, informed the court that high court is also monitoring the issue and if the petitioners have any grievance, the same can be told to the high court.
Several intervention applications were filed by Pithampur residents and NGOs supporting Bhopal gas victims. They informed the court that the high court was misinformed about 11 local residents consenting to the incineration. The applicants claimed that some individuals had not given their consent, and the state had wrongly represented their approval to the high court.
The court observed, “You appear to be following the not-in-my-backyard (NIMB) rule. You seem to suggest dump it elsewhere, but not in Indore.”
Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing an NGO, said that while they did not oppose the disposal of waste, they proposed an alternative method to incineration for handling the toxic waste. The court instructed that the alternative proposal be submitted to the state, which will then present it to the expert committee overseeing the toxic waste disposal.
The state had started unloading the 337 tonnes of toxic waste in Pithampur on February 13, 42 days after it was transferred from Bhopal for incineration.
The petition before the Supreme Court said that at least 4-5 villages are located within a 1-km radius of the disposal site, with one village, Tarpura, situated just 250 metres away. It said that the disposal was being carried out without relocating residents or informing them about the potential consequences of the dumping.
“The life and health of the residents of these villages are at extreme risk. The city of Indore is 30km away from Pithampur, which is a densely populated city of Madhya Pradesh. It is pertinent to mention that the Gambhir River flows besides the facility and caters waters to Yashwant Sagar Dam, which supplies drinking water of 40% of the Indore population,” the petition said.
The toxic waste has been lying abandoned in the defunct UCIL factory for the past 40 years, following the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) on the night of December 2-3, 1984, which killed 5,295 people, according to official figures. Activists, however, later estimated that at least 15,000 lives were lost, with many more suffering from long-term health issues due to exposure to the toxic gas.