Pollution

Another Bhopal Tragedy – Oil spill off the Bombay coast

August 7 morning saw the biggest ever oil spill in India as MCS Chitra collided with MV Khalijia 10 km off the Mumbai coast with the former tilting precariously and leaking oil into the sea. An estimated 500 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea and about 250 containers, some carrying hazardous chemicals and pesticides got hurled overboard. This accident is having a ripple effect; not only affecting the flora and fauna in and around the coast but also causing losses to local fisherman with a ban being imposed on fishes. Even the export market is taking a toll as an estimated 24,000 ships are stranded due to the oil spill.
Several aquatic species and sea birds have been found dead along the Mumbai coast, as a result of the oil spill off Mumbai. The formation of thick layer of poisonous oil in the seawaters has inflicted a distressing blow to the biological equilibrium by rendering fishes, turtles and other species immobile due to the caused high viscosity. Many sea birds whose diet comprises aquatic species have consumed oil which has adversely affected their digestive tracts. Mangroves along the coast have also been damaged and it is asserted that only few of them will be able to regenerate. “Cleaning up process in on but it would take around 45 days”, said the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
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The Bhopal Gas Tragedy – Maybe something good will come out of all this, all the political discussion

The Bhopal Gas Tragedy has been one of the worst incidents in the history of India, right up there with the unpunished anti-Sikh riots of 1984, and the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of 2002. The gas attack, in the dead night of early December 1984, had a personal connection for me. My dad had been in Bhopal for a official visit, just leaving a day before; a close call for us, but not for the thousands who perished from the effects of the gas in the first few days after the tragedy. This is a tragedy that has affected many hundreds of thousands as well, those who did not immediately suffer a fatality in the aftermath of the tragedy, but who were affected due to the effects of the gas, and suffered a series of health problems that have lasted till this day, and who will continue to suffer the effects for long periods after. And yet, they can be called a forgotten generation. After all, were it not for the recent court case that awarded a measly 2 year punishment to many office bearers of the company at the time of the gas attack, who would have said a word about a tragedy that struck 26 years back ? In fact, just the fact that it took 26 years for the judicial process to grind to a decision about criminal culpabilities is itself a grotesque tragedy.
One benefit of the recent controversy has been a discussion about what are the rightful next steps to take for resolving the tragedy. For long, the factory (still present, with whatever contaminant still keeps on seeping into the soil) remains on the ground, and there had been no discussion on how to clean up the place (and one of the major steps in any industrial disaster is the clean up process of an industrial disaster); the recent discussion has been about how to setup a process to clean up the disaster area (even though there are disputes about whether it will be the central Government or the state Government that will be responsible for the cleanup process). There is also a realization that the compensation given earlier was inadequate, but the current debate overall the proposed new compensation policy is also riven by dispute, and there is a worry that there will be enough red-tape in the entire process that a number of people affected by the tragedy will continue to not get the required compensation.
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Sentencing public officials for preventing flow of pollutants into a river

Indian rivers are filthy, with frequent reports of how the level of contaminants in the rivers of the country (including the holy rivers) is much (many times) over the levels that are fit for humans to even bathe in, forget drinking. As an example, the Yamuna is now considered to be of the same level as a drain in Delhi; at its entry into Delhi, it is bad for human consumption, and by the time it leaves the capital, it is so saturated with filth and pollution that it is considered dangerous to humans. In the last 1-2 years, there have numerous articles about how all the major rivers are India are facing the same level of pollution. In Punjab, the Sutlej had a huge number of fish suddenly dying because of the uncontrolled release of effluents.
Is the situation treatable ? Apparently not if one goes by the efforts undertaken by the Governments (both central and state). What has happened that huge amounts have been spent in the name of of Ganga and Yamuna Pollution control, and yet the rivers have only got more polluted. Refer this article (link) and you can see how the levels of pollution in rivers has increased drastically in the last decade.

In just over a decade, India’s major rivers have been desecrated. Urban filth and industrial pollution are scientific causes, but what drives them is personal greed and administrative indifference. Environmentalists believe that apart from industrial pollution and sewage, the increase in number of slaughterhouse, dhobi ghats, crematoria and slums are the major sources of pollution in these rivers. Every year, religious idols are immersed in rivers which lose a little more of their life as they are choked yet again.
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