In the aftermath of an industrial disaster: Forty years after the Bhopal Gas Disaster

Dr Usha Ramanathan’s public lecture will focus on the long-term consequences of the Bhopal disaster and its impacts on corporate accountability. 

The severity of the disaster was such that it found its synonyms in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between 3000 and 8000 people died within 24 hours in the city of Bhopal. The disaster left over 5,00,000 people affected  by the gas. In the shadow of the disaster is a widows' colony and an orphans' colony. That was 40 years ago. The lecture will probe what has changed in Bhopal in the meantime. It will in particular examine the extent to which the law has changed; the idea of toxicity and our understanding of disaster.

The lecture will be followed by a conversation between Dr Usha Ramanathan and some of the editors and authors of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India (OUP, 2024) which will be launched on this occasion. A reception will follow.

About the book

The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers the most comprehensive coverage of the diverse and complex discipline of environmental and natural resources law in India over the past fifty years. With forty-two contributions from law and non-law scholars, the Handbook presents diverse perspectives on several areas including biodiversity, climate change, water, forests, agriculture, health, resource extraction, and industrial development. 

By departing from the existing approach that examines natural resources law and environmental law separately, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers a much-needed integrated analysis of the development of domestic jurisprudence vis-à-vis the environment and natural resources

Speaker

Dr Usha Ramanathan works on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She writes and speaks on issues that include the nature of law, the Bhopal Gas Disaster, mass displacement, manual scavenging, eminent domain, civil liberties including the death penalty, beggary, criminal law, custodial institutions, the environment, and judicial process. She has been tracking, and engaging with, the Unique Identification (UID) project and has written, and debated extensively, on the subject. 

Her work draws heavily upon non-governmental experience in its encounters with the state, a six-year stint with a law journal (Supreme Court Cases) as reporter from the Supreme Court, and engaging with matters of public policy. She was a member of the Expert Group on Privacy set up in the Planning Commission of India which gave in its report in October 2012. She was a member of a committee (2013-14) set up in the Department of Biotechnology to review the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012. 

She was a member of the Committee set up by the Prime Minister's Office (2013-14) to study the socio-economic status of tribal communities which gave its report to the government in 2014.

Dr Philippe Cullet is Professor of International and Environmental Law at SOAS University of London and a Visiting Professor at the National Law University, Delhi. He received his doctoral degree in law from Stanford University, an MA in Development Studies from SOAS University of London, an LLM from King's College London, and a law degree from the University of Geneva. 

Dr Cullet has published extensively on environmental law, natural resources, water and sanitation, and socio-economic rights, and engages regularly with policymakers at the national and international levels. He is an Editor of the Law, Environment and Development (LEAD) Journal—a joint publication of SOAS University of London and the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC), Geneva.

Dr Lovleen Bhullar is an Assistant Professor at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham. Previously, she was a Research Fellow in Regulation and Antimicrobial Resistance at Edinburgh Law School. Dr Bhullar holds an LLB degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, an LLM in Environmental Law, a PhD from SOAS University of London, and an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

She is an Editor of the Law, Environment and Development (LEAD) journal—a joint publication of SOAS University of London and the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC), Geneva.

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