New Delhi, March 30 Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar on Sunday termed the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy a "mega environmental negligence" as he rued that the lessons from the disaster "are still unlearned".
"The Bhopal gas tragedy lessons are still unlearned... The Union Carbide leakage of 1984... It was mega environmental negligence. Even after four decades, families suffered generation after generation... genetic disorders and groundwater contamination," he said in his address at the valedictory session of the National Conference on Environment- 2025, organised by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) here.
Lauding NGT Chairperson, Justice Prakash Shrivastava (retd), the Vice President said: "I think if I'm not wrong, it was in 2015 that Justice Shrivastava, the judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, dealt with as a commissioner what compensation could be given."
"30 years after it, as I reflected, Justice Shrivastava dealt with an issue for the welfare of the victims. Just imagine how pathetic was the lack of awareness. We did not have an institution like NGT," he said.
"We did not have a regulatory regime that could address the issue. Things would have been very different if there had been a regulatory regime of the current level then. Distinguished audience, there is a growing concern that environmental justice often follows a troubling pattern of 4Ds - delay, deny, dispose, dissolve."
"This cycle must be broken. I am happy to note that the NGT is catalysing sensitisation on all fronts on this aspect. And I am sure intervention to the NGT exercise will be scarce," he said.
Noting that the NGT is "an expert body", the Vice President said: "I am not for a moment questioning anybody's authority or power, sir. But then, when expert bodies function and have the facility of getting expertise from people who are really knowledgeable, stalling their action delays environmental protection."
"It is soothing to note that the National Green Tribunal shifts from delay to decisiveness, from denial to accountability, from mere disposal to true restoration, and from dissolution to sustainable resolution... is increasingly getting respect of the people, institutions, corporate world, and workers."
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