The pollution in Delhi has been making headlines. While the cause of environment is supported by tweets, posts, government promises, pollution continues to disrupt our daily lives. 33 years ago, it was an enormous tragedy like the Bhopal Gas Leak which caused death and deformities. Now, as per a report by The Lancet Commission on pollution, India tops the world in pollution related deaths, with 2.51 million people losing their life to environmental degradation.
And yet, we have made environment a mundane news issue. We talk about it when cricket players disrupt their games like the Lankan players did in Delhi test match with India yesterday. When schools are shut or flights are delayed, these disruptions have become a routine issue due to declining air quality levels.
Things have gone downhill with regard to environmental protection and conservation since the Bhopal Gas Tragedy 33 years ago.
The innocent and unknowing victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy were denied reasonable justice on the day when Union Carbide Chairman and CEO Warren Anderson was flown out of the country after a bail on a government plane. By allowing him to escape, the government became an accomplice to the injustice.
The innocent residents of Bhopal were sleepingon the night of 2 December 1984, when they suddenly woke up to coughing, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation, burning in the respiratory tract, and nausea due to the leak of cyanide gas. They were shocked and confused. And completely unaware that what had hit them would affect their generations to come.
More than 50,000 people were affected with deformities, and their children were born to a cursed life. The citizens still await rehab for their affected children. The water is said to be contaminated affecting the health of people, tonnes of waste remain in the underground, where thousand were buried following the tragedy. Activists have been fighting to hold Union Carbide accountable, and to claim justice for the victims of one of the world’s worst industrial disaster.
The victims are demanding proper medical care, rehabilitation of the children being born with congenital malformations, employment and pension, adequate compensation and cleanup of contaminated ground water and soil.
Meanwhile, Anderson has died in 2014. But justice has still not been served. People are charging the state and central governments with criminal neglect of victims and collusion with Union Carbide and its current owner Dow Chemical.And perhaps, justice will never be achieved in full measure for those who awoke to hell that fateful night.
It is high time that everyone, including the government authorities, prioritise environmental conservation. One wonders when they will realise that the daily smog is an indicator of slow, but alarming rise in pollution levels. Why wait for another blow like the Bhopal Tragedy, and take some action before it’s too late.
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