BHOPAL: 32 YEARS IS TOO LONG TO WAIT

Zaid Ashar

Boght Hills Elementary

Grade 6

Mentor: Kelly Jenkins

1

Table of ContentsAbstract..........................................................................................................................................3

Introduction....................................................................................................................................3

Environmental History....................................................................................................................3

Environmental Footprint................................................................................................................4

Environmental Solution..................................................................................................................9

Interview with Victims..................................................................................................................10

Conclusion...................................................................................................................................11

Works Cited.................................................................................................................................12

Appendix......................................................................................................................................13

2

Abstract The name of my city is Bhopal. It is located in India, in Southeast Asia. The aims of my

research were to find out the environmental effects of Bhopal after serious environmental

setbacks recently. In Dec. 1984, a cloud of Methyl Isocyanate gas was released from a factory

known as Union Carbide. It was an American-run company which made pesticides. Thousands

of people died that night and many more were deformed for life. There is current groundwater

contamination leading to deformed kids till today. The government has made new safety

regulations. Thousands of people are still fighting Union Carbide and many activists are helping

them, Union Carbide is ignoring their pleas for justice.

IntroductionBhopal is a very ancient city. The current population is 1.437 million people(“UNdata |

Record View | City Population by Sex, City and City Type”) It is located in India, in southeast

Asia. It was chosen as the capital of Madhya Pradesh because the cabinet was being pressured

by Nawab Hamidullah who was a very important member of the government.(“Why Was Bhopal

Chosen as Capital of Madhya Pradesh in 1956 instead of Indore Which Was Already the

Biggest City of the Central India and Capital of Madhya Bharat? - Quora”) Bhopal’s normal

climate is a subtropical one with dry winters, humid monsoons, and hot summers. It also has a

huge artificial lake called Upper Lake. The aims of my research was to find out the

environmental issues in Bhopal, like the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Many have heard

of the Bhopal gas tragedy which happened on December of 1984.This event took many, many

lives and scarred millions of others for life, physically and mentally.

Environmental HistoryBhopal was formed in the early 18th century. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh

(“Why Was Bhopal Chosen as Capital of Madhya Pradesh in 1956 instead of Indore Which Was

Already the Biggest City of the Central India and Capital of Madhya Bharat? - Quora”). It is

known as the city of lakes because of many artificial lakes made by the Nawabs of Bhopal.

There is a large lake called Upper Lake in Bhopal. Bhopal gets their water from this lake and

3

they have now in recent years contaminated it. They now get their water from Narmada River

which is 67 km away in Indore, a neighboring city. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh so

the majority of Bhopal’s economy is driven by government jobs. My mother says there is sand

mining nearby. I researched this and found there is illegal sand mining going on in Bhopal which

they take from the riverbed of restricted areas. To show zoning and how Bhopal is zoned, I

used this map and you can get a general consensus of how Bhopal is zoned. Bhopal has

agriculture (light green) on the outside of the city. It has a majority of establishment institutes

described by the orange The dark green represents proposed recreational lake fronts.(“T&CP,

Bhopal”)

Environmental Footprint

An Environmental footprint is the overall quality of the city. It is measured by

sustainability. This may include healthcare access, transportation, air and water quality, and

many more. Overall, Bhopal is a non-sustainable city. After the Bhopal accident, of 1984, things

really changed. The water, air, and food was contaminated from Methyl Isocyanate. Healthcare

4

is a big issue there because it is very hard to get it (“State Health Policy”). As for energy usage,

Bhopal mainly uses coal and some hydro-power to power their electricity. There are plans for

small hydro-power, wind energy, and solar plants in the future. Bhopal’s population mainly uses

scooters/mopeds and motorcycles for their transportation (“Baseline Survey of Bhopal District,

Madhya Pradesh”). Madhya Pradesh as a whole is losing green-space and tree cover fast. MP

claims to have 97 lakh hectares of protected forest but in reality most of this land is not forest,

but is actually part of inhabited land and people’s land but the government is illegally calling it

their land.(“Madhya Pradesh’s Forest Cover Shrinking - Times of India”). Air quality is also poor

due to pollution from vehicles emitting exhaust, open incineration of waste such as polythene

bags and bio-medical waste, and pollution from construction sites. (“National Green Tribunal

Notice to MP Govt over Rising Pollution in Bhopal - Times of India”)

Environmental Problems

On Dec. 2-3 1984, a cloud of MIC escaped from Union Carbide, an American-run

pesticide company known as Union Carbide. During this night, thousands were killed by the

toxic fumes.

5

The picture above shows everything that was wrong with the factory that caused the

explosion and did nothing to help. The factory was suffering from losses so the management

decided to not repair any safety problems. They also had stored MIC gas that was more than

three times than recommended. They also ignored warnings by the safety inspector.

At the end many mass burials happened and many were cremated. At least, 15,000 to

20,000 people were killed in the years after the incident by diseases caused by MIC.50, 000 to

100,000 people were severely injured. On the night of the disaster, many people were blinded

by the gas and couldn’t breathe. Around 3,000 to 7,000 people were killed immediately after

inhaling fumes of MIC. . In the aftermath, people had respiratory problems, with heart damage

and had children with brain damage i.e. mental illness. Union Carbide never disclosed the

antidote for MIC poisoning. The doctors gave them the antidote for cyanide poisoning. However,

there was only a little supply of it, not enough for the whole population of Bhopal (“30 Years Is

Too Long to Wait for Justice”).

6

In the immediate few days after the tragedy, not only did it affect the air, the chemicals

seeped into groundwater, which caused many people’s drinking water to be contaminated, as

their main source of water was from well. After many mass protests and rallies, clean drinking

water arrived to eight communities.(“30 Years Is Too Long to Wait for Justice”). Thousands of

people are still fighting Union Carbide and many activists are helping them, Union Carbide is

ignoring their pleas for justice. . Not only is that but the Indian government not backing the

victims in their fight. Union Carbide is right now under the ownership of Dow Chemicals who

are denying any responsibility, meaning there is no clean-up happening. Several arrests have

been made since that night.

I interviewed my grandma who was a survivor of the gas attack. I first asked her what

her experience was of that night. She told me this. My grandma used to keep her windows open

at night. She started coughing and her eyes started watering. Then she started vomiting. She

was confused whether there was an explosion somewhere because there was smoke in the

atmosphere. She woke up my grandpa but he couldn’t find anything wrong around the house.

When she saw her face in the mirror she was blue and puffy. And her eyes were swollen shut.

But everyone else who had their windows shut were okay. When they took her to a doctor, trees

were burned black, and birds and cows and dogs were dead on the road. When my grandpa

thought that he should go check on his friend on a scooter near the factory, he saw a lot of

people affected. My grandpa and grandma left Bhopal and went to their relatives. My grandpa

started getting heart trouble and increased blood pressure. He stopped eating and sleeping

well. My grandpa died of leukemia last year and my grandma thinks it is because of the gas

exposure. It was very difficult because afterwards, they did not know whether water was safe to

drink.

After the tragedy, Bhopal was evacuated and everyone left and the city was cleaned and

the water and air was tested. A lot of people started getting bore wells so that they would not

have to drink city water. A lot of the small kids died. And women who were pregnant at this time

had still-born babies. The most affected were very poor because the rich were sleeping in the

cold night with windows closed but those who were homeless or in shanties were directly

exposed. This was her experience of the Bhopal gas tragedy. (See full interview in section

below.) Politics also come into play during this time because the government agreed to very

small amounts of compensation for the victims. Corruption led to many victims not getting the

amounts due to them easily.

7

An activist whose name is Satinath Sarangi has founded an organization which has

been fighting for over 30 years now. He used to live in Indore, but when he heard about the

news of the explosion, he went to Bhopal to see if he could help in any way. After that, he never

left Bhopal. He stayed and helped the victims fight for the justice they rightly deserved. You can

visit his webpage at bhopal.org..(“THE BHOPAL MEDICAL APPEAL | Supporting Free Medical

Care for the Survivors of the Worlds Worse Chemical Disaster”)

Long-term birth defects have happened because of this huge tragedy. (“30 Years Is Too

Long to Wait for Justice”) Amnesty International has released a report that details the incidents

in the aftermath of the Bhopal tragedy.(“30 Years Is Too Long to Wait for Justice”) Still now, the

water is contaminated. The Indian government is messing with the sample data.(Goodman).

Following protests, the Indian government did some things to compensate for the tragedy.

However, it is still very little. They have supplies only 8 communities with clean drinking water.

This case has been in the Indian Supreme Court for almost 33 years now. (“Justice for Bhopal

Victims ‘Delayed by Politics’”)

8

This is a time -line by Amnesty International (“30 Years Is Too Long to Wait for Justice”)

9

Environmental Solution

The state of MP has a plan to start cleaning the site of the incident. This would include

shipping the toxic sludge to a facility nearly 250 km away from the site and incinerating it there.

This could potentially cause another disaster. They have already burned 10 tons in six days. An

activist named Rachna Dhingra said, "They incinerated 10 tons in six days. How many days will

it need to burn 350 tons? What will happen to environment of nearby areas?" (“Madhya Pradesh

Readies Plan to Burn Union Carbide Waste | Business Standard News”)

10

To remember this incident, Madhya Pradesh has made a monument. They have built a

care and hospital center for the victims of the incident. Many people however do not have any

means of getting to the hospital that was built on the outskirts of the city.

On the city scale, there recently have been efforts in Bhopal to help with air pollution.

MyBus is a project where the Bhopal government has made a huge 2-lane strip through the

middle of Bhopal’s highways and roads with car lanes on the sides. Buses only are allowed in

the 2-lane strip. Passengers can take different buses to all over the city. The problem that

MyBus is fighting is bad public transportation and accidents, along with clogged traffic and air

pollution. This project was funded and supported by World Bank. World Bank started this project

in Nov. 2013 and in recent months it has been opened to the public. The media coverage of

MyBus is being covered by most local newspapers. (“MyBus Bhopal | Home”). On the

neighborhood scale, there are community gardens where fresh herbs are grown and citizens

can go there to collect them. This saves air pollution coming from trucks which usually transport

the herbs and vegetables.(“A Healing Garden Grows in Bhopal | Health Care Without Harm”)

On the building scale, there is a building called NetZero in Bhopal. NetZero uses huge solar

panels to power the building. The air conditioning system chosen was one with ozone friendly

refrigerant and carbon dioxide monitoring sensor system and low noise inverters. Water

harvesting system, controlled water discharge toilets, and sewage treatment with zero discharge

ensured efficient usage of water. The furniture chosen, too, was 95% recyclable. The third thing

is that they use a machine called cell cube to store excess energy so that they can recycle

excess energy instead of wasting it.(“SunCarrier Omega :: Green Building”)

Interview with Victims Here is the interview with my grandma and her friend, Mrs. Shaida as follows.

Zaid Ashar: What is your experience of that night?

Grandma: I was at a hostel near the factory site when this happened. I used to keep my

windows open at night. I started coughing and my eyes started watering. Then I started

vomiting. I was confused whether there was an explosion somewhere because there was

smoke in the atmosphere. I woke up my husband but he couldn’t find anything wrong around

the house. When I saw my face in the mirror I was blue and puffy. And my eyes were swollen

shut. But everyone else who had their windows shut were okay. When they took me to a doctor,

trees were burned black, and birds and cows and dogs were dead on the road. When my

husband thought that he should go check on his friend on a scooter near the factory, he saw a

11

lot of people affected. My husband and I left Bhopal and went to our relatives. My husband

started getting heart trouble and increased blood pressure. He stopped eating and sleeping

well. My husband died of leukemia last year and I think it is because of the gas exposure. It was

very difficult because afterwards, they did not know whether water was safe to drink.

Mrs. Sajida: I was coming from Kanpur, at 1.35 AM. My train was stopped at Bhopal station and there was gas on the station. My kids were 6 and 3 they started coughing and were unable to walk. I took them to the waiting room and then I left to see what was wrong and to get help. My eyes were swollen and I couldn’t see. There were people shouting, running, and lots of people had kids who were unconscious, My hands and feet were aching, but I walked all the way to her relatives house near the station ( it took her 1.5 hrs.) I got them to go back to the station, and get my kids, my 6 year old kid died just then, and my younger kid survived, although he has problems in his legs and his mental capacity is weak. I myself have asthma and diabetes, body aches and fainting spells.My husband died on duty at union carbide in 1981 due to malfunctions in the safety valves. I

kept asking him to leave the job because he was exposed every day, there were alarms and the

workers would get exposed, get some treatment and go back to work. He got acid burns and

fractures in the years before he died due to work site accidents.

Zaid Ashar: Were they involved in any lawsuits?

Grandma: My grandparents were part of the victim’s lawsuit. They got some compensation of

about 2000$. But this was not enough for the medical treatment for most people and people are

still fighting for justice

Mrs. Shaida: I was part of a victim’s lawsuit. I got very few rupees in compensation, for my kids

she got 50,000 rupees ($833) for my boy and 35,000 rupees ($583) for myself. This has not

been enough for me to cover medical costs.

ZA: Why do you think it happened?

G: It was because of negligence. There was another leak before but my friends husband

“Muhammad Ashraf “shut it. He died and they gave her some compensation were told to leave

the city by Union Carbide, Union Carbide did not do anything to fix the problems after his death

and these were never reported. She (the friend) left for a year, the day she came back to Bhopal

the gas tragedy happened, she fainted and two of her kids were also taken for dead. She was in

the morgue, when people realized that she is not dead and pulled her out. One of her sons died,

the other is mentally ill. Wherever she touched him, he started bleeding. She herself started

getting asthma and suffered from low eyesight.

12

ZA: Have you taken part in a protest?

G: We haven’t but a lot of people have protested for a long time.

MS: I have problems in my legs so I have a hard time getting involved in protests. I used to take

part in protests but I feels no one cares, the money was spent not on victims but the politicians

took a lot of paybacks.

ZA: What do you think Dow chemicals should do?

G: They should learn from this incident, and make sure this does not happen again and make

sure victims get treatment not monetary help but get better health care.

ZA: Do you think the media has covered this tragedy correctly?

G: Media has tried very hard to cover this in India but there was a lot of corruption in the

compensation distribution so a lot of victims never saw the money.

MS: Media has reported a lot but there is nothing been done. A lot of people interviewed me and

made films on my story , But I have not got any reports or videos back from them which I am

disappointed about.  

ConclusionOverall, Bhopal is a non-sustainable city at the moment. They face huge environmental

setbacks after the disaster of 1984. The ground water was polluted. The people of Bhopal suffer

still today mentally and physically from MIC contamination. However, Bhopal is making gradual

slow progress to becoming a sustainable city. There are plans to clean up the waste near the

factory, and incinerate the toxic waste at a plant 250 km away. To clean up air pollution, Bhopal

has started a public transport system known as My Bus. On the neighborhood scale, they have

made community gardens where people can get fresh vegetables and herbs so that the trucks

transporting the vegetables from other places do not pollute the environment. On the building

scale, Bhopal has gotten a NetZero building which is a very eco-friendly building powered by

13

solar power. It is important to study cities like Bhopal because they could determine the future of

our world. If we don’t study cities, we cannot take care of them which would gradually lead to an

environmental catastrophe.

Works Cited“30 Years Is Too Long to Wait for Justice.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“A Healing Garden Grows in Bhopal | Health Care Without Harm.” N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

“Baseline Survey of Bhopal District, Madhya Pradesh.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

Goodman, Sara. “Poisoned Water Haunts Bhopal 25 Years after Chemical Accident.” Scientific

American. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

“Justice for Bhopal Victims ‘Delayed by Politics.’” ucanews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“Madhya Pradesh Readies Plan to Burn Union Carbide Waste | Business Standard News.” N.p.,

n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

“Madhya Pradesh’s Forest Cover Shrinking - Times of India.” The Times of India. N.p., n.d.

Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“MyBus Bhopal | Home.” N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

“National Green Tribunal Notice to MP Govt over Rising Pollution in Bhopal - Times of India.”

The Times of India. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

“State Health Policy.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“SunCarrier Omega :: Green Building.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“T&CP, Bhopal.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“THE BHOPAL MEDICAL APPEAL | Supporting Free Medical Care for the Survivors of the

Worlds Worse Chemical Disaster.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

“UNdata | Record View | City Population by Sex, City and City Type.” N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr.

2016.

“Why Was Bhopal Chosen as Capital of Madhya Pradesh in 1956 instead of Indore Which Was

Already the Biggest City of the Central India and Capital of Madhya Bharat? - Quora.”

N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

14

Appendix

Biosketch

Zaid Ashar is in 6th grade at Bought Hills Elementary School in Latham, New York. His favorite

subjects in school are math and science. After school, he does swimming, soccer, and cubing.

His record for a 3x3x3 cube is 50 seconds and a 2x2 cube is 10.88 seconds. In the future, he

plans to work for Apple or IBM. His dream is to make a wind-powered car, for which he is

working on ideas.

About the EcoEd Research ProgramRensselaer's EcoEd Research Group involves faculty and students in the development and

delivery of creative, interdisciplinary environmental education to K-12 students. The goal is to

extend the broad impact of humanities and social science research on environmental problems

through translation into hands-on exercises through which young students develop capacity to

deal effectively with environmental problems, and with complex problems in general - integrating

many types of knowledge. 

A key premise is that environmental education can enhance overall student performance and

investment in education, while cultivating the particular capacities needed to address

environmental sustainability. Exercises developed in RPI Eco Ed cultivate capacity to think

though both proximate and distant stressors on human and ecosystem health, for example, and

about the way science can be used in the making of law to address both local and global

problems. RPI EcoEd advances a cascade structure of education in which older students refine

their own knowledge through development of innovative ways of sharing it with younger

students. In process, older students grow in remarkable ways into roles as stewards of both

environmental and educational systems.

In EcoEd’s Research Program, young students (grades 4-11) are assigned an RPI student

mentor, and with them move through a nine-week exploration of a research topic, culminating in

a substantial written report and formal oral presentation. In the first year of the program, in

15

spring 2012, students focused on problem areas such as coral reefs, palm oil plantations, golf

courses and baseball stadiums – first mapping the problems and stakeholders, then mapping

solutions that have been developed or proposed. In 2013 and 2015, students focused on the

environmental problems and sustainability plans of countries. In 2014, they focused on counties

in New York State. In 2015, each student focused on a city, exploring its environmental history,

current environmental footprint and problems, and possible pathways to greater environmental

sustainability in the future. Students used news articles, academic publications, and data

provided by governments, international organizations, and NGOs in their research – learning to

locate, analyze, evaluate and use research resources. Rensselaer’s EcoEd Research Group is

run by Professor Kim Fortun, working with PhD students Alli Morgan and Lindsay Poirier.

16