Thangai VS Annan
On June 7th 2010, the nation has had to relive the gruesome memory of the aftermath of that fateful night of December 3, 1984 of Bhopal. Those heartrending cries of helplessness and the spasms of the deadly end that people met — men and women, children and the infirm which outraged the nation and our people — are being played out again to disturb our cozy little cocoons.
After long span of 25 years, Bhopal gas tragedy verdict has been finally announced today by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Mohan P. Tiwari. The verdict has been issued against the eight accused former employees of U.S based Union Carbide India Ltd. The accused include Keshub Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale, Kishore Kundar, J Mukund, R B Roy Chowdhary, S.P.Chowdhary, K.V.Shetty and Shakeel Quereshi. They have been convicted under Sec 304(A) “causing death by negligence” and 304 (Part II) “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” of Indian Penal Code.
The long wait of 26 years for justice in the gas leak disaster has come to a shameful end. This has caused a sense of tragedy and betrayal no less in magnitude than the original disaster itself. It was not confined to the country. In most parts of the world, public opinion and media have castigated the judicial outcome of Bhopal. There seems to be a sense of outrage at allowing Union Carbide’s top brass to get away.
What happened exactly?
In the early hours of Monday, Dec. 3, 1984, a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas enveloped the hundreds of shanties and huts surrounding a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Later, as the deadly cloud slowly drifted in the cool night air through streets in surrounding sections, sleeping residents awoke, coughing, choking, and rubbing painfully stinging eyes. By the time the gas cleared at dawn, many were dead or injured. Four months after the tragedy, the Indian government reported to its Parliament that 1,430 people had died. In 1991 the official Indian government panel charged with tabulating deaths and injuries updated the count to more than 3,800 dead and approximately 11,000 with disabilities.
The plant was operated by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), just over 50 percent of which was owned by Union Carbide Corporation. The first report of the disaster reached Union Carbide executives in the United States more than 12 hours after the incident. By 6:00 a.m. in the U.S., executives were gathering with technical, legal, and communications staff at the company’s Danbury, Connecticut headquarters. Information was sparse but, as casualty estimates quickly climbed, the matter was soon recognized as a massive industrial disaster.
The company claimed that the gas was formed when a disgruntled plant employee, apparently bent on spoiling a batch of methyl isocyanate, added water to a storage tank. The water caused a reaction that built up heat and pressure in the tank, quickly transforming the chemical compound into a lethal gas that escaped into the cool night air.
Ironically, the plant at Bhopal had its origin in a humane goal: supplying pesticides to protect Indian agricultural production. The pesticides made at Bhopal were for the Indian market and contributed to the nation’s ability to transform its agricultural sector into a modern activity capable of feeding one of the world’s most heavily populated regions.
It produced the pesticide carbyryl (trademark Sevin). In 1979 a methyl isocyanate (MIC) production plant was added to the site. MIC, an intermediate in carbaryl manufacture, was used instead of less hazardous but more expensive materials. UCC understood the properties of MIC and its handling requirements.
The night the gas leaked, the company refused to divulge any details of the antidote needed to treat the gas leak victims. From then to now, the government has made no effort to find out what that antidote was, nor has it incorporated the research data collected by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to treat survivors.
The 1985 reports give a picture of what led to the disaster and how it developed, although they differ in details.
Causes of the Disaster
Factors leading to the gas leak include:
- The use of hazardous chemicals (MIC) instead of less dangerous ones
- Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of over 200 steel drums.
- Possible corroding material in pipelines
- Poor maintenance after the plant ceased production in the early 1980s
- Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance and regulations).
- Safety systems being switched off to save money—including the MIC tank refrigeration system which alone would have prevented the disaster.
The problem was made worse by the plant’s location near a densely populated area, non-existent catastrophe plans and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation. Analysts claimed that the parties responsible for the magnitude of the disaster are the two owners, Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India, and to some extent, the Government of Madhya Pradesh.
Much speculation arose in the aftermath. The closing of the plant to outsiders (including UCC) by the Indian government, and the failure to make data public contributed to the confusion. The CSIR report was formally released 15 years after the disaster. The authors of the ICMR studies on health effects were forbidden to publish their data until after 1994. UCC has still not released their research about the disaster or the effects of the gas on human health. Soon after the disaster UCC was not allowed to take part in the investigation by the government. The initial investigation was conducted entirely by the government agencies – Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the directorship of Dr. Varadarajan and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In November 1984, most of the safety systems were not functioning. Many valves and lines were in poor condition. Tank 610 contained 42 tons of MIC, much more than safety rules allowed. During the nights of 2–3 December, a large amount of water entered tank 610. A runaway reaction started, which was accelerated by contaminants, high temperatures and other factors. The reaction generated a major increase in the temperature inside the tank to over 200 °C (400 °F). This forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases. The reaction was sped up by the presence of iron from corroding non-stainless steel pipelines. It is known that workers cleaned pipelines with water. They were not told by the supervisor to add a slip-blind water isolation plate. Because of this, and the bad maintenance, the workers consider it possible for water to have accidentally entered the MIC tank.
The Repercussion of the leakage
Thousands of people had succumbed by the morning hours. There were mass funerals and mass cremations as well as disposal of bodies in the Narmada river. 170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. 2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried. Within a few days, leaves on trees yellowed and fell off. Supplies, including food, became scarce owing to suppliers’ safety fears. Fishing was prohibited as well, which caused further supply shortages.
A total of 36 wards were marked by the authorities as being “gas affected”, affecting a population of 520,000. Of these, 200,000 were below 15 years of age, and 3,000 were pregnant women. In 1991, 3,928 deaths had been certified. Independent organizations recorded 8,000 dead in the first days. Other estimations vary between 10,000 and 30,000. Another 100,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries of different degrees. The acute symptoms were burning in the respiratory tract and eyes, blepharospasm, breathlessness, stomach pains and vomiting. The causes of deaths were choking, reflexogenic circulatory collapse and pulmonary oedema. Findings during autopsies revealed changes not only in the lungs but also cerebral oedema, tubular necrosis of the kidneys, fatty degeneration of the liver and necrotising enteritis. The stillbirth rate increased by up to 300% and neonatal mortality rate by 200%.
Medical staffs were unprepared for the thousands of casualties. Doctors and hospitals were not informed of proper treatment methods for MIC gas inhalation. They were told to simply give cough medicine and eye drops to their patients. The gases immediately caused visible damage to the trees. Within a few days, all the leaves fell off. 2,000 bloated animal carcasses had to be disposed of.
“Operation Faith”
On December 16, the tanks 611 and 619 were emptied of the remaining MIC. This led to a second mass evacuation from Bhopal. Complaints of a lack of information or misinformation were widespread. The Bhopal plant medical doctor did not have proper information about the properties of the gases. An Indian Government spokesman said that “Carbide is more interested in getting information from us than in helping our relief work.” As of 2008, UCC had not released information about the possible composition of the cloud. Formal statements were issued that air, water, vegetation and foodstuffs were safe within the city. At the same time, people were informed that poultry was unaffected, but were warned not to consume fish.
Temporary Effects of the Disaster
The leakage caused many short term health effects in the surrounding areas. Apart from MIC, the gas cloud may have contained phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, oxides of nitrogen, monomethyl amine (MMA) and carbon dioxide, either produced in the storage tank or in the atmosphere.
The gas cloud was composed mainly of materials denser than the surrounding air, stayed close to the ground and spread outwards through the surrounding community. The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. People awakened by these symptoms fled away from the plant. Those who ran inhaled more than those who had a vehicle to ride. Owing to their height, children and other people of shorter stature inhaled higher concentrations. Many people were trampled trying to escape.
Long term effects on humanity
Victims of Bhopal disaster started asking for Warren Anderson’s extradition from USA. It is estimated that 20,000 have died since the accident from gas-related diseases. Another 100,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries.
The quality of the epidemiological and clinical research varies. Reported and studied symptoms are eye problems, respiratory difficulties, immune and neurological disorders, cardiac failure secondary to lung injury, female reproductive difficulties and birth defects among children born to affected women. Other symptoms and diseases are often ascribed to the gas exposure, but there is no good research supporting this.
There is a clinic established by a group of survivors and activists known as Sambhavna. This is the only clinic that will treat anybody affected by the gas, or the subsequent water poisoning, and treats the condition with a combination of Western and traditional Indian medicines, and has performed extensive research.
Union Carbide as well as the Indian Government long denied permanent injuries by MIC and the other gases. In January 1994, the International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB) visited Bhopal to investigate the health status among the survivors as well as the health care system and the socio-economic rehabilitation.
Compensation from Union Carbide
The Government of India passed the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act that gave the government rights to represent all victims in or outside India. UCC offered US$ 350 million, the insurance sum. The Government of India claimed US$ 3.3 billion from UCC. In 1999, a settlement was reached under which UCC agreed to pay US$470 million (the insurance sum, plus interest) in a full and final settlement of its civil and criminal liability. When UCC wanted to sell its shares in UCIL, it was directed by the Supreme Court to finance a 500-bed hospital for the medical care of the survivors. Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) was inaugurated in 1998. It was obliged to give free care for survivors for eight years.
Economic rehabilitation
After the accident, no one under the age of 18 was registered. The number of children exposed to the gases was at least 200,000. Immediate relief was decided two days after the tragedy. Relief measures commenced in 1985 when food was distributed for a short period and ration cards were distributed. Widow pension of the rate of Rs 200/per month (later Rs 750) was provided.
One-time ex-gratia payment of Rs 1,500 to families with monthly income Rs 500 or less was decided. Each claimant was to be categorised by a doctor. In court, the claimants were expected to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that death or injury in each case was attributable to exposure. In 1992, 44 percent of the claimants still had to be medically examined.
From 1990 interim relief of Rs 200 was paid to everyone in the family who was born before the disaster. The final compensation (including interim relief) for personal injury was for the majority Rs 25,000 (US$ 830). For death claim, the average sum paid out was Rs 62,000.
Effects of interim relief were more children sent to school, more money spent on treatment, more money spent on food, improvement of housing conditions. The management of registration and distribution of relief showed many shortcomings.
In 2007, 1,029,517 cases were registered and decided. The number of awarded cases was 574,304 and number of rejected cases 455,213. Total compensation awarded was Rs.1,546.47 crores. Because of the smallness of the sums paid and the denial of interest to the claimants, a sum as large as Rs 10 billion is expected to be left over after all claims have been settled.
33 of the 50 planned work-sheds for gas victims started. All except one was closed down by 1992. 1986, the MP government invested in the Special Industrial Area Bhopal. 152 of the planned 200 work-sheds were built. In 2000, 16 were partially functioning.It is estimated that 50,000 persons need alternative jobs, and that less than 100 gas victims have found regular employment under the government’s scheme.
Today –
16th June 2010
Concerned over the uproar on the Bhopal gas leak judgment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 14.06.2010 directed the Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by home minister P Chidambaram, to report to the cabinet within 10 days on all aspects relating to the tragedy. Manmohan Singh directed that the GoM may meet immediately to take stock of the situation arising out of the recent court judgement, to assess the options and remedies available to the government on the various issues involved and to report to the cabinet within 10 days claimed a statement from the prime minister’s office (PMO).
The GoM, set up to look into all issues relating to the Bhopal disaster, was reconstituted recently with Chidambaram as the head of the panel. The empowered GoM also comprises health and family welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, law minister M Veerappa Moily, minister for urban planning S Jaipal Reddy, minister for roads and highways Kamal Nath, tourism minister Selja, minister for fertilisers and chemicals MK Alagiri, minister of state in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan and environment minister Jairam Ramesh. Madhya Pradesh’s minister in-charge of rehabilitation will be a permanent invitee to the panel.
June 20th 2010
The deluge of information around the Bhopal gas tragedy clearly establishes that everyone let down the victims. But perhaps the biggest failure has been on the part of the state that did not provide proper treatment that the victims deserved. But right from the day of the accident to now, victims and their families have received very little healthcare support despite specific orders by the Supreme Court.
But some have now come forward to claim that the company did have an antidote which they did not share with anyone.
Some employees claim that they were made to stand in front of a basin, water was sprayed into their eyes and a tablet was given to stop the breathlessness and vomiting. So the company’s dispensary had the treatment but they didn’t give it to anyone else outside. If they had then quite a few others would have been saved.
So doctors continued to treat the symptoms caused by the deadly gas like acute breathlessness, eye injuries, vomiting and skin burns. But since the toxic elements that caused them were not treated right at the onset, victims were left struggling with lifelong ailments.
The key reason why this could have happened was shown by a study done on the victims which found that MIC broke down in the body into cyanide which circulated in the blood stream create treatment protocols for the sick.
One of the two monitoring committees set up by the Supreme Court to oversee medical care for the gas tragedy victims said that after 50 visits, 50 meetings and six reports to the apex court, there has been no change in the working of these hospitals.
Even now registration of gas victims was not being done properly Health books of patients containing investigations and prescriptions were not being maintained Health records of patients prior to the issue of health books is difficult to trace. Funds allocated for procuring medicines were not being spent and therefore, the supply of drugs was likely to dry up soon.
More than 25 years later, there is still no relief for those who survived one of India’s worst industrial disasters. They know that along with Union Carbide, which denied them primary treatment, their own government let them down by its callous indifference.
Litigations
Over two decades since the tragedy, certain civil and criminal cases remain pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, against Union Carbide, (now owned by Dow Chemical Company), with an Indian arrest warrant also pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster. Greenpeace asserts that as the Union Carbide CEO, Anderson knew about a 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which identified 30 major hazards and that they were not fixed in Bhopal but were fixed at the company’s identical plant in the US. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former chairman of UCIL, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted but had died before judgment was passed.
Government Measures
Waking up to a string of injustices to the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy, the government is likely to file a curative petition against the dilution of criminal charges against former Union Carbide officials and move a fresh plea to the US to extradite former chairman Warren Anderson to stand trial in India.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram that met twice on 18.06.2010 is learnt to have agreed with Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, who favoured a curative petition against the 1996 Supreme Court verdict diluting charges against the accused to causing death due to a rash and negligent act.
At its first meeting, the GoM discussed the government’s legal options. Chidambaram said they had “reached some tentative conclusions” that would be firmed up in the report to be submitted to the PM.
At its second meeting later in the evening that focused on health-related issues, the ministerial panel also wondered why the Supreme Court appointed trustees — chaired by former Chief Justice of India A.M. Ahmadi — to the Bhopal Memorial Hospital that was set up in the aftermath of the gas tragedy.
Incidentally, Justice Ahmadi headed the SC Bench that diluted the charges against Union Carbide officials, a verdict that reduced the maximum jail term for the tragedy from 10 years to two years. Justice Ahmadi said he had offered to quit but the SC rejected his request.
Sources said the conclusions referred to by Chidambaram included the petition to “cure” the defect in the 1996 verdict and making a renewed bid to seek Anderson‘s extradition.
Planning Commission releases Rs.982 crore for victims
Hours before the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met on 18.06.2010, the Planning Commission is understood to have released Rs.982 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims.
There was no official word on the reported approval of funds. The funds released for sustainable economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims would need the approval of the GoM, official sources said.
It is understood that the GoM will give broad guidelines on the use of the funds.
The State’s proposal, in the shape of an action plan, had been pending for long with the Commission.
It had earlier rejected the action plan on the grounds that the proposals were not convincing.
However, changes and circumstances and public outrage against the low compensation for the victims are understood to have forced the Commission to review its stand and release the funds.
In its proposal, the State government accepted that 16,000 people had died and 5,000 women were widowed in the 1984 disaster due to the toxic waste that polluted theenvironment in and around the abandoned Union Carbide factory in Bhopal.
The action plan for rehabilitation is divided into four components — medical, economic, social and environmental.
It is well-known that the victims received poor medical care. Under the action plan, 40 independent work sheds and a special industrial estate with 152 work sheds — to employ the victims as per their decreased capacities, owing to their medical condition after inhaling the toxic gas — were proposed, but the State government had slipped on this issue.
Rs. 1,500-crore package for Bhopal victims recommended
A road map to address the legal, medical, humanitarian, environmental and other aspects of the Bhopal gas leak disaster was presented on 20.06.2010 by the Group of Ministers (GoM) to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has called a special Cabinet meeting for June 25, 2010 to discuss the report.
The GoM recommends a Rs. 1,500-crore package for the victims (Rs. 1,320 crore from the Centre and Rs. 180 crore from the Madhya Pradesh government), enhancing the compensation for the kin of the dead to Rs. 10 lakh, for the permanently disabled to Rs. 5 lakh and for the temporarily disabled to Rs. 1 lakh. It has also recommended that those stricken with cancer and other serious ailments be given Rs. 2 lakh. However, previous handouts will be deducted from the amount payable.
A sum of Rs. 300 crore required for the clean-up operation will be paid by the Centre, but it will continue to pursue the case against Dow Chemical in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur.
The report also recommended fresh steps for extradition of Mr. Anderson and the filing of a curative petition in the Supreme Court to secure enhanced punishment for the guilty.
CBI moves curative petition in Supreme Court
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved a curative petition in the Supreme Court challenging the 1996 judgement of the apex court, delivered by the then chief justice A M Ahmadi, that had diluted the charges against the eight accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
“The Petitioner (CBI) by way of the present Curative Petition is seeking restoration of the charges of Section 304 Part II of IPC against the Respondents/accused persons which were quashed by this Hon’ble Court without any consideration of the material placed by the prosecution at that stage,” said agency in its petition settled by Attorney General G E Vahanvati. It deals with the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which attracts maximum punishment of a 10-year jail term. However, due to dilution of the charges, the accused were tried under section 304A of the IPC, which provides a maximum punishment of two years of jail.
“Categorical evidence has now come to light, which unequivocally points to the commission of offences under Section 304 Part II of the IPC by the Respondents/accused persons. The accused persons getting away with minimal charges under Section 304-A, despite categorical evidence pointing to the commission of offences under Section 304 Part II of the IPC has resulted in a colossal failure of justice. This failure of justice adversely affects not only the victims in particular but also the society and the nation as a whole,” said petition drafted by advocate Devadatt Kamat.
It said: “The assumption underlying the deletion of the charges under Section 304 Part II of the IPC breaks down when one takes into consideration the fact that there was structural and operation defects in the Plant — aspects which the Respondents/accused as persons responsible for running the Plant could not have been said to be oblivious of.”
CBI said: “This court failed to consider the fact that the Operational Safety Survey Report conducted by the UCC authorities, which outlined the defects in the plant was also placed on record and it was specifically submitted that the report was sent to Mr. Warren Anderson and to Mr. Keshub Mahindra i.e. Accused No. 1 and 2 respectively.”
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