40 years after the chemical disaster, India has still not learned the lessons of Bhopal

Chennai (India), connection

A symbol of the impunity of industrialists and the abandonment of public authorities, the Union Carbide factory remains abandoned in the heart of Bhopal, 2.5 million inhabitants. Its toxic waste continues to poison the groundwater, as if to prolong the hell experienced by its inhabitants since 1984.

« Bhopal is remembered only by the spectacle of its immediate aftermath, but it is a slow and progressive tragedy, in time and space »writes Nikhil Deb, environmental justice specialist and author of Slow Violence and the Gas Peedit in Neoliberal India (Oxford, 2021).

The hell begins on the morning of December 3, in the cold winter of northern India. Bhopal residents wake up vomiting, with burning airways and eyes, and a cough so painful « we pray to God to die quickly »remembers Rashida Bi, 25 years old at the time.

In these first days, at least 3,800 people will die of suffocation, pulmonary or cerebral edema. They don't know it yet, but they breathed — among other things — methyl isocyanate, a gas 500 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. During the night of December 2 to 3, 45 tons of this gas leaked from the pesticide factory of Union Carbide, an American company now part of the giant Dow Chemical.

« We don't know when

the horror will end »

But the worst still awaits the residents. More than 10,000 would die from complications over the following decades. The ordeal continues today. « More than 150,000 people exposed are still struggling with a constellation of symptoms attributable to the disaster: respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, ophthalmological or psychiatric illnesses »notes a report from Lancet released for this sad anniversary.

« We don't know when the horror will end. Children in utero at the time of the disaster were born sick. New generations have an alarming rate of cancer »testifies for Reporterre Rachna Dhingra, an activist who heads theONG Bhopal Group for Information and Action.

The « biggest industrial crime » unpunished

The negligence of Union Carbide was quickly established to explain the Bhopal disaster. Only after five years will the company pay compensation to the victims. 450 million euros, a paltry sum compared to the number of people affected.

« 93 % of victims received less than 300 euroslaments Satinath Sarangi, a key figure in Bhopal, who opened a clinic for victims in 1996. Furthermore, none of the perpetrators have been convicted and the US government has always opposed their extradition. It is the greatest industrial crime in history and it goes unpunished. »

On December 2, activists in Bhopal organized the sending of thousands of letters from victims to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding action. They had earlier approached the Supreme Court to demand that reparations be extended in the face of Bhopal's endless health hell. According to Satinath Sarangi, Dow Chemical is working to evade its responsibilities. « They are making the case rot with techniques known to multinationals: delaying deadlines, not going to trials, refusing to recognize Indian justice as competent. »

For its part, the Indian state only considered superficial cleanups of the factory site, which provoked hostility from survivor groups.

« A mini Bhopal in power »

To avoid other Bhopals, India adopted a set of environmental and industrial safeguards through the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986. It subjected polluting or destructive projects to prior impact studies, even if these could be falsified in view of the corruption which plagues India.

These meager foundations of the precautionary principle have been buried for ten years, in the name of economic growth. « The government wants to attract investors at all costs and all environmental regulations have been dissolved »alerts Satinath Sarangi, for whom « India is dotted with mini Bhopals ».

In 2021, the Ministry of Labor informed Parliament that at least 6,500 employees had died while working in factories, ports, mines and construction sites in the previous five years. Although on a smaller scale, several industrial disasters have occurred in India over the past five years. As when in 2020, dangerous vapors from LG Polymers killed twelve people in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

« The Bhopal disaster could have been avoided and it could also have enabled the stakeholders concerned to rectify their mistakesjudge Nikhil Deb, professor at California Polytechnic State University. Instead, state and private actors, driven by liberalism, have worsened people's suffering. »