Gas tragedy relief department director Swatantra Kumar Singh assured that the incineration of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant at Pithampur wo

The highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killed 5,479 people and left more than five lakh with health problems and long-term disabilities.

The highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide pesticides factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing 5,479 persons and leaving more than five lakh others with health problems and long-term disabilities.

Forty years after one of the world’s worst industrial disasters that occurred at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in 1984 around 340 metric tons of hazardous waste still lying in the factory premises began to be transported to incineration on Sunday morning following directives of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The 377 tonnes of hazardous waste will be disposed of at an incineration site in Pithampur near Indore, around 250 km from Bhopal. Officials said initially some part of the waste will be burnt at the disposal unit of Pithampur.

The work to remove 377 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal has got underway ahead of its planned disposal near Indore.