Incineration of 10 tonnes of waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide plant began on a trial basis at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district on Friday afternoon, and the process will take around 72 hours to complete, officials said on Friday.
The trial incineration of the waste began at 3 pm, a senior official said.
The trial disposal of 10 tonnes of waste, out of the total 337 tonnes, from the factory responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, is being carried out on the orders of the Madhya Pradesh high court.
According to the state government, the Union Carbide plant waste includes soil from the premises of the defunct unit, reactor residues, Sevin (pesticide) residues, naphthol residues and "semi-processed" residues.
The state Pollution Control Board says that as per the scientific evidence, the effect of Sevin and naphthol chemicals in this waste has now become "almost negligible".
According to the board, there is no presence of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas in this waste at present, and it also does not contain any kind of radioactive particles.
Indore Division Commissioner Deepak Singh, who visited the incineration plant, said, "We started the process to incinerate the waste at 3 pm. The Pollution Control Board is monitoring the process."
Dhar district magistrate Priyank Mishra told reporters that the disposal of the waste of Union Carbide factory is being done according to the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the Central and State Pollution Control Boards after the order of the high court.
The process of incineration of waste is also being broadcast live outside the waste disposal plant in Pithampur, he said.
Srinivas Dwivedi, regional officer of the State Pollution Control Board, said, "Five types of waste from the Union Carbide factory have been mixed in appropriate proportions in a mixer at the Pithampur waste disposal plant. Ten tonnes of waste was dumped in the incinerator. Before this, the temperature of the incinerator was raised to 850 degrees Celsius by running it empty."
It will take about 72 hours to burn 10 tonnes of waste on a trial basis, he said, adding that the ash, solid residue, water and gases emitted during different stages of the waste destruction process will also be disposed of properly.
A police officer said that strict security arrangements have been made in Pithampur industrial area in view of the waste disposal. Senior police and administration officials are also present at the spot.
On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. At least 5,479 people were killed and thousands were crippled.
It is considered one of the biggest industrial disasters in the world.
As part of the plan to dispose of 337 tonnes of waste from the closed Union Carbide factory, it was transported to an industrial waste disposal plant in Pithampur, about 250 km from the state capital, on January 2.
Madhya Pradesh high court Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain had ordered on February 18 that the first test of 10 tonnes of waste should be conducted on February 27 following safety norms and if there is no adverse effect, then the second test should be conducted on March 4 and the third test on March 10.
The high court had said that the report of all three tests should be presented before it on March 27.
The Supreme Court on February 27 refused to interfere with the Madhya Pradesh high court's order to transfer and dispose of the waste to a plant operated by a private company in Pithampur.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih had also refused to stay the testing of disposal of waste from the Union Carbide factory.
Several protests were staged after the waste from the factory responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy was brought to Pithampur.
The protesters have expressed fears of harm to human population and environment due to the disposal of this waste, although the state government has rejected the claims.
The state government says adequate arrangements have been made for the safe disposal of the factory waste.
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