No improvements have been made to the sewer system since the incident and the cleaning was last done six months ago, residents told DTE
A year has passed since a gas leak on April 30, 2023, in Ludhiana’s Giaspura neighbourhood killed eleven residents, including three minors. Still, authorities have not identified the gas or its source.
In the wee hours of April 30, 15 people had fainted and were taken to hospitals. Of them, 11 were declared dead on arrival and four survived. Preliminary evidence suggested that the cause of death was asphyxia (deprivation of oxygen) due to inhalation of a poisonous gas (which could be hydrogen sulphide or a combination of gases).
Activists allege that no improvements have been made since the fateful incident last year. “Another tragedy is waiting to happen,” Jasjit Singh Gill, a retired colonel in the Indian Army and an activist, told Down To Earth (DTE).
“I see no outcome and I do not see politicians talking about this,” Yogesh Khanna, Advocate and an activist, told DTE.
What we know so far
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) constituted two Joint Committees to investigate the matter. The first report headed by Adarsh Pal Vig, chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board released in October 2023, cited damaged sewer infrastructure, ineffective sewer cleanup, and temporary blockage due to materials deposited by heavy rainfall as possible reasons.
It further noted that the sudden discharge of any chemical by any tankers or other means has been ruled out by the police.
“Police have collected CCTV footage from a 1 km radius around the area,” Suhail Mir, additional deputy commissioner of police, told DTE last year.
The report also quoted a joint survey by the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) that no acid-consuming industry was located within a 100-metre radius of the site. It said there was a strong possibility that the sewer line was blocked in the stretch, which caused the gas to accumulate and escape. The sewer lines were commissioned in 2002-2003 and are maintained and operated by the Municipal Corporation.
Residents and family members pay floral tributes to those who died in the gas leak in Giaspura, Ludhiana. Photo: JS Gill
However, the report also quoted expert opinions, pointing towards the industries. “The chloride content in the main sewer water near the accident was found higher in comparison to distant points (both upstream and downstream) which may be due to the use of hydrochloric acid in the area. These facts also indicate that industrial discharge is a key factor in releasing of H2S in high concentrations,” it read.
The NGT rejected this report, calling it “unconvincing”. It found inconsistencies in the responses recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials. Gurnam Singh, regional director of CPCB, had stated that the prolonged deposition of sludge in the sewer line may have created anaerobic conditions, leading to the build-up of high concentrations of H2S. However, other CPCB officers found that the low pH levels (2.5-2.6) reported in the main sewer water near the site could be due to acidic industrial effluent discharge.
Also, NGT noted that the pollution control board did not provide details, including the quantity of the effluent discharge from the surrounding polluting units.
So the NGT constituted a fresh committee, comprising Raja Ram Singh, deputy inspector general of forests, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Chandigarh, Bharat Kumar Sharma, member secretary, CPCB and Sreedevi Upadhyayula, department of chemical engineering, IIT Delhi.
It said: “The possibility of a repeat of such an incident cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it is important to ascertain the real cause of the gas leak and to fix the responsibility.”
The experts released their report on March 4, 2024, noting that the gas leak happened due to leakage or emission of sewer gas. It has not ruled out the possibility of acidic effluent being discharged into the sewer.
“Sudden acidification in the short stretch under consideration by accidental or illegal discharge of acidic effluent into the sewer around the sampling time at 11.30 A.M to 01.40 P.M on 30.04.2023 may not be ruled out,” the report read. The pH levels were found to be between 2-3. The report also speculates that a specific bacteria acting upon hydrogen sulphide could have generated sulphuric acid, creating acidic levels.
The report stated that the toxic H2S sewer gas could have travelled into the branch sewer connected to the houdis (escape points of gases released from the sewer pipeline) of the affected houses.
The report also considered post-mortem reports, which stated that the cause of death was poisoning due to toxic gas inhalation. In the October Joint Committee Report, Charan Kamal, district forensic officer, Ludhiana was quoted as saying that some symptoms of methane gas were also observed in the bodies. He found no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, the reports could not pinpoint the type of poisoning as further analysis are still awaited. “We cannot be certain about the gas until viscera analysis and histopathological examination are done,” Hatinder Kaur, the former civil surgeon in Ludhiana, told DTE last year.
DTE contacted Jasbir Singh, the current civil surgeon in Ludhiana on April 29, 2024, to find out more about the status of the analyses. He refused to listen or speak after the reporter mentioned the Giaspura gas leak.
“The Giaspura gas leak was due to infrastructural deficiencies. The causes are too muddled,” Gill explained. Giaspura is a densely populated area. Around 20 persons were found residing in a plot of 150 square yards, the fresh Joint Commission report revealed.
“We need to have common effluent treatment plants, better sewer lines to prevent sewage choking, and separate pipelines for sewage and stormwater to prevent this from happening again,” he added.
Nand Kishore Sahu, a resident of the area, told DTE that no improvements have been made to the sewer system since the incident and the cleaning was last done six months ago.
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