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September 28, 2006

Fumigating Bhopal

Harsh Mander, The Hindustan Times, September 28, 2006

Late one evening, a young man of 34 was found hanging from the ceiling of his home in Bhopal. His name was Sunil Verma, the date, July 26, 2006. More than 21 years earlier, he had lost his parents and five siblings in the gas massacre on December 2, 1984.

That December night, from the adjacent Union Carbide Corporation pesticide factory in Bhopal, a lethal combination of methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, mono methylamine and carbon monoxide was unleashed on this sleeping city of a million unsuspecting residents. One of the first localities into which the gas spewed was JP Nagar, where Sunil and his family were sleeping. Roused, they found themselves gasping for breath, their eyes burning as if they were on fire. Coughing and screaming, they ran out of their homes, and were swept away by a surging human torrent.

Sunil, then 12 years old, tightly held the hand of his younger sister, Mamata, as he ran desperately. Lost in the dense clouds of gas, he got separated from the rest of his family. Suddenly, even Mamata’s hand was wrenched out of his. Screaming people surged from all sides, some fell and were crushed, others tore off their clothes, yet others were vomiting uncontrollably.

Sunil ran, gasping for his life, his eyes afire, until he could make out the phantom form of a matador van. He pushed his way inside, and survived. His relatives told him later that his mother had died holding her eight-month-old infant son, Sanjay, who miraculously survived. Their father had returned to their hut the next morning. On the night of the gas leak, he had locked the hut before they ran. When he opened the door on his return the next morning, he found the dead body of one of his sons, Santosh, who had accidentally been left behind in the panic. Shortly after, their father died, perhaps of the gas, or may be of a broken heart.

Of his seven brothers and sisters, only the baby, Sanjay, and Mamata, whose hand had been wrenched from Sunil’s, were saved. Sunil suddenly found himself almost completely alone in the world, responsible for looking after his eight-month-old brother and his younger sister. The boy decided not to go back to school, and instead devote himself entirely to his brother and sister, whom he got admitted into an SOS village.

In the early years, the survivors lived on relief. The efforts of the government to rebuild their livelihoods ended as sad and expensive failures. The Madhya Pradesh government spent Rs 700 million for this purpose, which succeeded in creating long-term livelihoods for little more than 80 women.

Meanwhile, unknown to Sunil and other residents of JP Nagar, as they struggled for livelihoods and ways to stem their failing health, a curious legal battle was being fought on their behalf in the courts of India and the US. The Indian government, through the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act of March 1985, arrogated to itself exclusive powers to represent the victims in the civil litigation against Union Carbide. On behalf of the victims, the Indian government filed a suit for compensation of more than $ 3 billion in the federal court of the southern district of New York.

In the search for a star witness in New York courts, government officials settled for Sunil, because he was a child who had lost much of his family in the tragedy. He was flown to the US with the Indian team. In court, Sunil recounted his story in fluent Hindi, and his testimony was translated for the judge.

He learnt later that the case was returned in May 1986 to the Indian courts on grounds of ‘forum non-convenience’, under the condition that Union Carbide would submit to their jurisdiction. During the proceedings of the Bhopal district court, Union Carbide was directed to pay an interim relief of Rs 3,500 million so that the delay in the adjudication of the case would not adversely affect the claimants.

However, Union Carbide refused to pay this sum and its appeal against this decision reached the Indian Supreme Court. On February 14, 1989, in a sudden departure from the matter of interim relief, the Supreme Court passed an order approving the settlement that had been reached between the Government of India and Union Carbide, without the knowledge of the claimants of Bhopal. According to the terms of the settlement, in exchange for payment of $ 470 million, the corporation was to be absolved of all liabilities. All criminal cases against it and its officials were to be dropped, and the Indian government was to defend the corporation in the event of future suits.

The settlement sum, nearly one-seventh of the damages initially claimed by the government, was not only far below international standards but was even lower than the modest standards set by the Indian Railways for railway accidents. The Supreme Court revised its judgment on October 3, 1991, upholding the settlement amount paid by Union Carbide but directing the Indian government to make good any shortfall.

Over time, it became increasingly difficult for Sunil to return to his empty house. It was too full of memories. His brother and sister were growing up in the SOS village. In 1991, he moved in with leading activist and long-term friend Sathyanath Sarangi.

A year later, in 1992, the state government built a ‘widows’ colony’. Houses were allotted by lottery to widows and orphans who had survived the gas tragedy, and Sunil qualified. He then moved into this colony, where he lived until his death.

In 1994, his sister turned 18, beyond the protection offered by the SOS village in Bhopal. Sunil decided to get both his sister and brother discharged from the SOS village and bring them over to live with him. Their presence filled a little bit the accumulated loneliness that had festered inside his soul all these years. But perhaps they returned too late.

As time passed, Sunil became more and more withdrawn and uncommunicative. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he found something slowly cracking up within him. He was frequently depressed, and became obsessed with thoughts of suicide. He heard voices call out to him. He would not stir out of his home, would not wash himself or talk to people. There were times when he ran out of the house without clothes, feverishly roaming the streets night and day, running miles along the railway track, deep into the forest.

For a decade prior to his passing away, Sunil has been on medication for his mental illness. He refused to consider marriage for himself, firm in his resolve to first ensure a good future for those he had taken under his care almost 22 years earlier. In time, he got his sister Mamata married to an electrician, and his brother educated in an English-medium school. Today he is a graduate. Before Sunil died, he was in search of a suitable bride for his brother.

He died wearing a T-shirt declaring ‘No More Bhopals’. At the time he took his life, no one had been punished for the crimes of the Bhopal massacre. With him died, perhaps, even the hope for justice.

Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for secularism, peace and justice.

Posted by bhola at 03:41 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

Union Carbide must clean Bhopal mess

NITYANAND JAYARAMAN, ENVIRONMENT INDIA, SEPTEMBER 1, 2006

BHOPAL, Sep 1 (IPS) - After an appellate court in the United States rejected claims by Bhopal city residents, seeking compensation from Union Carbide for environmental contamination around the site of the world's worst industrial disaster, plans are afoot to have the case transferred to India.

"Every setback presents us with new opportunities and only strengthens our resolve," Satinath Sarangi, of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), one of several activist groups working with the survivors of a runaway reaction in Union Carbide's pesticides plant in this central Indian city in December 1984, that left an estimated 3,500-7,500 people dead and many more maimed.

Without ruling on whether or not Union Carbide ought to remediate the environment, the court in New York observed on Aug. 10 that any order by it directing Union Carbide to clean up will run into technical problems "because of the impracticality of a court-supervised clean-up project on land owned by a foreign sovereign."

"We're considering a number of options. If the U.S. court feels that the Indian government's control over any remediation ordered by it will cause conflicts, it can direct Union Carbide to appear in the Indian court. Let the Indian courts decide," he said speaking with IPS.

In the same order, the court also rejected an appeal by Bhopal resident, Hasina Bi, seeking reinstatement of claims for property damages and remediation of the Union Carbide plant site and contamination of groundwater. The court cited lack of legal tenure over her property. "The record reflects that Bi resides illegally on government-owned ground. She therefore cannot sustain claims for trespass or private nuisance under New York law," Judge Edward R. Korman noted in his ruling.

But the "summary order" cannot be cited as a precedent, and applies only to Bi's individual appeal. The U.S. court is yet to rule on another appeal by Janki Lal Sahu and others who have claimed damages for health effects due to contamination, long-term medical monitoring, and compensation for private property damage.

Bi appealed after her claims and those of 14 others asking a U.S. District Court in New York to direct Union Carbide to clean up the site and aquifers were dismissed by Judge John Keenan last October. It was Judge Keenan who, 12 years ago, deemed that the case for compensation should be tried in India rather than in the U.S.

As a result, after five years of legal wrangling, the Indian Government was forced to reach an of court settlement with Union Carbide for 470 million US dollars, a fraction of the three billion dollars, originally claimed. Union Carbide also refused to pay the 220 million dollars demanded by survivors' organisations as interim relief.

But the issue of who will eventually pay for the cleaning up thousands of tons of toxic wastes abandoned by Union Carbide in and around its factory site remains.

At least 300 tons of obsolete pesticides, including DDT formulations, lie within the factory premises. Routine pollution and contamination caused by rotting equipment and reactors at the derelict factory has created toxic hotspots within the site. In some places, mercury levels are more than six million times higher than background levels, according to a 1999 study carried out by the international environment lobby Greenpeace.

Studies by the Indian government have since confirmed that many of these poisons have seeped into the aquifers.

In Jun. 2004, the Indian government, under pressure from survivors, submitted a letter to the New York court supporting their litigation. The letter stated that the Indian Government had no objection to any court in the U.S. directing Union Carbide to clean up the factory site. It also clarified that "the previous settlement of claims concerning the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster between Union Carbide and Union of India has no bearing on or relation whatsoever to the environmental contamination issuesà"

The U.S. court, however, has ruled that "the letter does not obviate any of the sensitive and severe difficulties identified by the district court and by this court regarding the administration of remediation of land owned by a foreign sovereign in its own country."

While the decision is a setback to the Bhopal survivors, it may still be premature for Union Carbide to celebrate. "Government of India is not party to the U.S. Court case. We have approached the Madhya Pradesh (state) High Court seeking that liability be fixed on the polluter," says Yashwir Singh, director of the ‘Bhopal Cell' at India's ministry for chemicals. "According to our rules, the polluter will have to pay."

The case in the High Court filed by a resident of Bhopal names Union Carbide, Eveready Industries (Carbide's successor in India) and Carbide's new owner Dow Chemical as respondents. According to Singh, "any one or more of them could be held liable."

After clean drinking water, pursuing Carbide for criminal liability and for environmental remediation are the two most important demands of Bhopal survivors.

Last April, nearly 50 Bhopal residents and their supporters marched 800 km to the national capital of New Delhi to sit on a week-long hunger strike in the capital to press a package of demands. "We won most of our demands, but the Prime Minister was very nervous when it came to pinning liability on Carbide or its American parent," said Rachna Dhingra, one of the hunger-strikers and a member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. "But we're determined that the clean up should happen, and at the cost of Carbide or Dow. Otherwise, it will tell corporations what they want to hear -- that they can come and do as they please in India," Dhingra said.

Bi is among 20,000 indigent residents who are still waiting for the Madhya Pradesh state government to obey a Supreme Court order directing it to provide Carbide's neighbours with clean drinking water. In the absence of clean water, a new generation of people is being poisoned, medical relief organizations working in the area say.

A survey conducted in 2002 by health workers from the Sambhavna Trust Clinic found that 98 percent of the men surveyed and 95 percent of women were anaemic. According to Dhingra, trichlorobenzene -- one of the "Carbide chemicals" found in the drinking water -- kills blood cells and causes anaemia.

Internal documents unearthed as part of the original case in the New York District Court reveal that Union Carbide knew as early as in 1977 that the Bhopal plant posed a "danger of polluting subsurface water supplies in the Bhopal area." Much of the contamination is attributed to two soccer-field-sized solar evaporation ponds located outside the factory containing several years' worth of toxic sludge.

Union Carbide has said that it has handed over the property to the Madhya Pradesh State Government, and that the responsibility of clean up now lies with the state.

Union Carbide has failed to appear in the ongoing case in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The company can evade liability because it does not have any direct assets in India. All its business in India is conducted through a subsidiary of Dow Chemical. Survivors allege that the Indian Government, which can enforce Carbide's appearance by going after Dow, is soft-pedalling because of pressure from the U.S. government.

A report of the U.S.-India CEO Forum, a high-profile coterie of top U.S. and Indian executives led by industrialist Ratan Tata, clearly highlights the lingering legacy of Bhopal as impacting Dow Chemical, and says that resolving this "would send a strong positive signal to U.S. investors." (END/2006)

Posted by bhola at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)