Large-scale chemical manufacturing have amplified the nature and scale of Industrial Accidents in India as evident in:
- 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy (leakage of methyl isocyanate); 1985 Oleum gas leak in Delhi; 2017 NTPC Unchahar (Uttar Pradesh) power plant boiler explosion; Vizag gas leak (2020); etc.
Key Causes of Industrial Accidents
- Systemic and Regulatory: Despite presence of framework of laws in India, effective implementation is often lacking.
- Certain safety and environmental regulations are “diluted” through executive orders to promote ease of doing business.
- Operational and Technical Causes: Human errors, Engineering design flaws, Poor maintenance, or Protocol violations on factory floor. E.g. 2017 NTPC Unchahar boiler blast
- Hazardous Materials and Process-Related: Industries dealing with toxic gases (chlorine, ammonia, etc.) often operate on narrow margins of safety.
- Environmental Factors: E.g., Earthquakes can damage industrial installations (e.g. 2001 Gujarat earthquake caused spills in some chemical warehouses).
- Economic and Managerial Factors: Cost-cutting on safety measures, inadequate investment in modern safety systems, etc.
Key Mitigation Measures
- Legislative: Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, enacted in direct response to Bhopal (1984), Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991; Disaster Management Act, 2005, etc.
- Institutional: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) including State and District Level institutions.
- Emergency Response Forces: Dedicated hazardous materials (HAZMAT) response units; National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with units trained in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) emergency response.
- Technological: Advanced Process Safety Management (PSM) systems, etc.
- Community and Healthcare Preparedness: Involvement of local public; Local crisis groups for information dissemination, etc.
