TRANSCRIPT
A convoy of a dozen trucks escorted by more than 50 vehicles - including fire engines, police cars and ambulances - departed from a pesticide factory site earlier this week.
Forty years after the event, Indian authorities in the country's central city of Bhopal have started to dispose of toxic waste from the chemical factory.
That facility experienced one of the deadliest gas leaks in history.
"I was asleep with my family and suddenly we were woken up with this unusual sensation of, you know, burning sensation in the eyes and we couldn't breathe. And we were struggling to breathe and our eyes were watering and couldn't see much. It had, it seemed as if, you know, someone was cutting onions. And when someone was choking you so you couldn't breathe. And that was happening for all of us. Me, my brother, younger brother and my parents, mum and dad."
That's Dr. Amit Zutshi.
He recounts his traumatic experience in the early hours of the 3rd of December, 1984.
That day methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory run by the US-owned Union Carbide Corporation in his hometown, Bhopal.
Dr Amit tells SBS his parents couldn't open their eyes for nearly a month at the time of time incident.
He explained that his father decided to leave and go to a relative's place about five kilometres away from where they lived.
"Thankfully we had a car, so Dad drove the car and I think that's the reason he could not open because he had to keep his eyes open.And that led to a lot of the gas getting in, getting absorbed through the cornea. And so that's why he had more eye symptoms. But when we were travelling in the car, we saw a lot of dead bodies, ordinary people who had collapsed."
More than half a million people in the capital of Madhya Pradesh state capital were poisoned as a result of the incident.
Up to to 16,000 people died in the world's worst industrial disaster.
Harinarayan Chari Mishra is the Bhopal Police Commissioner.
"A convoy of at least 30 trucks carrying toxic remains of waste materials were moved for disposal from Union Carbide, according to the prescribed standard operating procedure (SOP) by the government. A proper procedure will be followed according to the SOP to dispose of the industrial and commercial waste."
The waste is headed to a disposal facility in Pithampur, where the material is to be burnt.
It follows the state's recent high court ruling a month ago that remaining waste should be removed from the abandoned site.
Workers had spent months preparing leak-proof, fire-resistant trucks to carry the 337 tonnes of hazardous waste, sealed in 12 protective shipping containers.
Strong measures were taken to avoid any further accident or disaster on the 230-kilometre, seven-hour journey.
Local authorities say it will take three to nine months to incinerate the waste.
Swatantra Pratap Singh is the Director of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Directorate.
"The remaining 337 metric tonnes of toxic waste is going to be properly packed under the supervision of Central Pollution Control Board and Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board. Following the proper safety guidelines, the waste will be incinerated at the Ramky Enviro (industrial waste management company) facility in Pithampur, where toxic waste is treated and incinerated."
Built in 1969, the Union Carbide plant, which is now owned by Dow Chemical, was seen as a symbol of progress and industrialisation in India.
It provided thousands of job opportunities for the poor, while manufacturing cheap pesticides for millions of farmers.
But during the 1984 leak, pollution from the factory and wind movement caused many victims to die, as they choked in their beds.
Thousands more died from the aftermath over the ensuing months and years.
The exact casualty numbers still remains unclear.
Professor Stuart Khan is a chemical expert from the University of Sydney.
"There would still be significant chemical residues in that area but they would go well beyond the specific chemical that cause that harm at that time. There'd be degradation products and likely other chemical reactants, other substances, that would've been used in manufacturing as well."In 2014, support groups had said up to 150,000 people were still suffering illnesses.
These included chronic, debilitating cancer, lung problems and neurological disorders from having inhaled the deadly gas.
The disaster has also been called an ecocide, for its devastating effect on wildlife.In 1989, Union Carbide paid over $750 million [[AUD]] in compensation in an out-of-court settlement with the Indian government.
But activists argue the money wasn't enough for the survivors.
Dr Amit Zutshi explains it's the invalidation that people feel after the traumatic event that makes it worse.
He says the fact that it's taken 40 years for the government to act on this speaks volumes in itself.
"If you look at the amount of money which has been given to people, it's been a very small amount as compared to the traumatic experience and the loss they have endured. There's no, it is not in proportion to anything of what they have been through, so that I think is adding insult to the whole thing. So that's one part of it, the financial part. And I think definitely the lack of medical inputs and the lack of psychological inputs have aggravated the whole picture.."The 55-hectare plant was abandoned, but a large quantity of chemicals and pesticides stored inside the facility kept slowly leaking.
They seeped into the soil and contaminated the drinking water of more than 40 shantytowns.
Waste materials - such as tar and compounds containing chlorine, mercury, lead and other elements - were left in the chemical factory.
Among the criminal and civil lawsuits from the incident are from women who had children with disabilities as a result of the poisoning.
In 2010, eight former Union Carbide employees were convicted in India of causing death by negligence.
They were sentenced to two years of jail time and fined the maximum penalty allowed under the country's law of over AUD $3,000 each.
Not too long after the verdict, all eight people were released on bail.
Survivors and campaign groups had long called for the removal of the harmful material.
For activists like Rachna Dhingra, from Bhopal Group for Information and Action, it's been an uphill battle.
"The 337 metric tonnes of toxic waste generated by the Union Carbide factory being talked about is really just one per cent of the total waste because of which, today, the groundwater of 42 slums has been polluted. Even today, there is toxic waste at 21 locations in the factory and buried in solar ponds outside the factory as well."
