Decades after Bhopal disaster, India clears toxic waste left behind
Authorities have cleared toxic waste from the Indian city of Bhopal, four decades after a disaster due to gas leaked from an American-owned chemical plant caused thousands of deaths.
Over 377 tons of hazardous waste was shifted from the factory late on Wednesday night for its disposal at a unit in the state’s Dhar district, civil officials said.
Bhopal’s Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Director Swatantra Kumar Singh told Anadolu that a green corridor was created for the shifting and the disposal reached its destination on Thursday morning.
According to Kumar, 12 container trucks were used to shift the waste. “Now the final disposal will start soon which would take from three to nine months,” he said.
According to officials, those who were involved in shifting the waste, are also monitored by the health officials.
Last month, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had set a four-week deadline to shift the waste.
The leak on the night of Dec. 2 1984 killed up to 8,000 people in the weeks afterwards and thousands more have died since, from the aftereffects of what is considered one of history's worst industrial disasters.
The plant was shut down and Union Carbide -- the company that had run it -- faced a flurry of court cases for its alleged negligence.
Last year, Amnesty International in its report said 40 years after the gas leak, the “survivors and their descendants still await just compensation, a thorough clean-up of their environment, adequate medical assistance and treatment, punishment of all perpetrators, and comprehensive economic and social rehabilitation.”
“Amnesty International joins Bhopal survivors and activists in demanding urgent action to address the ongoing human rights abuses in Bhopal from the governments and companies alike,” it said.
