Forty Years, Over 300 Tonnes: Why India's Hazardous Waste Law Struggles to Clean Up After Itself

On the 3rd night of December 1984, a toxic gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant into the atmosphere of Bhopal resulting in one of the worst industrial catastrophes in the history of India. Four decades later, the waste it left behind remained at the site. In December 2024, the Madhya Pradesh High Court denounced the authorities for their inaction and mandated a four-week deadline for its removal. In January 2025, around 337 tonnes were removed to a disposal facility in Pithampur, where the incineration process began in a few months. Why did removing toxic waste from a disaster site need a court ultimatum, that too after forty years? The answer insinuates something grave about the wider system. Indian Judicial precedents indoctrinated strong principles on hazardous waste and liabilities attached to it, but the statute now relies on weak penalties, and no one is clearly responsible for orphan waste or when the polluter is gone.