Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action and the Cost of Remediation

In one line

A village in Rajasthan lost its water and its soil to two chemical units, and the Supreme Court made the units pay to put both back.

In exam wording: in Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India (1996) 3 SCC 212 the Supreme Court applied the rule in the Oleum Gas Leak case, that once the activity carried on is hazardous or inherently dangerous the person carrying it on is liable to make good the loss caused to any other person by that activity irrespective of whether he took reasonable care, the rule being premised upon the very nature of the activity, and held that the offending units were absolutely liable to compensate for the harm caused by them to the villagers in the affected area, to the soil and to the underground water, were bound to take all necessary measures to remove the sludge and other pollutants lying in the affected area, and were bound to defray the cost of the remedial measures required to restore the soil and the underground water sources; the Court held that the levy of the cost of remedial measures is implicit in sections 3 and 4 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, which are couched in very wide and expansive language, and independently that under the polluter pays principle the responsibility for repairing the damage is that of the offending industry.

The facts

Bichhri is a small village in Udaipur district of Rajasthan.

From 1987 a chemical unit in the village complex produced oleum and single super phosphate. The calamity came when a sister concern began producing H acid in the same complex, exclusively for export. Its manufacture gives rise to enormous quantities of highly toxic effluent, in particular iron-based and gypsum-based sludge.

The scale. Between them the units produced about 2,400 to 2,500 tonnes of highly toxic sludge, besides other pollutants.

What happened to it. The untreated waste waters were allowed to flow out freely and the untreated sludge was thrown in the open in and around the complex. The toxic substances percolated deep into the earth, polluting the aquifers and the subterranean water supply. The water in the wells and streams turned dark and dirty, unfit for human consumption, unfit for cattle and unfit for irrigation. The soil became unfit for cultivation, which was the mainstay of the villagers.

The affected area was about 350 hectares, as indicated in the report of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.

The units closed in January 1989, after the villagers rose in virtual revolt and the District Magistrate imposed section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court noted that the consequences remained: the sludge, and the long-lasting damage to earth, to underground water, to human beings, to cattle and to the village economy.