31 years after Bhopal tragedy, cover-up sadly continues
It may sound ironic but it is true.
Even 31 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy - the worst ever industrial disaster globally - the number of people who died and those who suffered permanent injuries due to the toxic gas leak remains a subject of dispute.
Every single agency dealing with the aftermath of the disaster has mishandled the situation, leaving the survivors and families of those dead in a lurch. All efforts are being made to downplay the number of people who have died due to effects of the gas leak.
The lackadaisical approach of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Madhya Pradesh government and Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department has left no option for survivor groups but to approach courts once again.
The issue of number of deaths due to lingering effects of Methyl iso cynate (MIC), which leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide on the intervening night of December 2 and 3 in 1984, got reopened in 2010 after the Bhopal district court convicted eight Indian officials of the Union Carbide for criminal negligence.
Following the public outcry, Central government's Group of Ministers on Bhopal decided to file curative petitions seeking higher compensation from Union Carbide and its present owner Dow Chemicals, as well as reopening of charges against Warren Anderson. The Supreme Court in 2011 dismissed criminal curative petition but the civil curative petition about compensation is still pending.
The curative petition filed by CBI mentioned that MIC caused the death of 5,295 people and left 568,292 others with different kinds of injuries. The Group of Ministers also announced additional ex-gratia for families of the dead and 50,000 people who had suffered permanent injuries. This was unjust. First, the numbers were downplayed a great deal. Second, this money was to come from Indian tax-payers and not from Union Carbide, which has got away by paying a pittance amount of $400 million as a result of botched up package mediated by the courts.
After a group of women survivors of Bhopal went without water and food for days in the national capital in November 2014, minister of chemicals and fertilizers Ananth Kumar agreed to seek correct figures of disaster related injuries and death from concerned agencies. These figures of injuries were to be obtained from records of hospitals run by the MP government as well as from scientific estimates of ICMR which ran a long-term epidemiological study in Bhopal. This data was supposed to be used to revise figures presented in the curative petition for additional compensation from Union Carbide and Dow.
None of this happened in the past one year, as revealed by RTI documents. The chemicals and fertilizers ministry sent letters to the state government and ICMR. MP government took six months to reply, saying it did not maintain separate figures for gas-affected and non gas-affected patients even in the hospitals meant for gas victims. ICMR set up an expert committee which continues to dodge the issue saying it had closed down its project in Bhopal and sticks to the official figure of 5,295 deaths. It is shirking from its responsibility of providing scientific estimates based on its study from 1984 to 1994.
In reality, both MP government and ICMR are hiding their own data. According to the findings of ICMR study published in 2004, 12,167 deaths were attributable to the 1984 disaster till 1993. This excludes 3,500 excess abortions between 1984 and 1989 ICMR had estimated in a separate study. The Centre for Rehabilitation Studies, run by MP government, has reported that at least one death occurred due to MIC exposure every day in the year 2000. Not just this, MP government presented a figure of 15,342 disaster-related deaths in another curative petition before Supreme Court in 2011 based on claims registered till 1997. Data published in 2010 about hospitals run by the Department of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation showed that there were 502,686 persons with chronic illnesses.
Estimates of disaster-related deaths, based on all these scientific findings, are close to 25,000, which is nearly five times the figure being currently presented in the curative petition, says intervention petition filed by survivor organisations.
The number of dead and injured in the past 30 years due to MIC exposure is being grossly downplayed. This is being done to shield the culprit corporations, just in case the court decides to award higher compensation. Union Carbide got away by paying $400 million for the great human and environmental disaster, while its current owner Dow Chemicals does not want to own any liability. This game is now three decades old. Look at what happened with British Petroleum, which had to shell out a whopping $18.7 billion for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which left 11 people dead. The case was settled in just five years.