Authorities in India have removed hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an Indian chemical plant that witnessed one of the world's deadliest gas leaks 40 years ago.
In December, the court set a four-week deadline for the disposal of the waste.
On Wednesday, the toxic waste – about 337 tons – was taken from the Union Carbide factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal to an incineration facility about 230 kilometers (143 miles) away.
Treatment and disposal of the waste will take between three and nine months.
Thousands of people died in December 1984. after inhalation, poisonous gas leaks from the factory.
Since then, the toxic material has lain in the canned factory, contaminating groundwater in surrounding areas.
The toxic waste cleared from the factory this week included five types of hazardous materials – including pesticide residues and “perpetual chemicals” left over from the manufacturing process. These chemicals get their name because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.
For decades, these chemicals in the abandoned factory slowly seeped into the environment, creating a constant health hazard for the people who live in nearby areas.
2018 survey of the Indian Institute of Toxicological Research revealed that high concentrations of metals and chemicals had contaminated groundwater in 42 residential areas near the factory.
After decades of inaction, the Madhya Pradesh state High Court on December 3 set a four-week deadline for authorities to dispose of the toxic waste material from the site.
The court said the authorities “are still in a state of inertia despite 40 years”.
The process of moving the waste began on Sunday when officials began packing it in leak-proof bags. Those bags were then loaded onto 12 sealed trucks on Wednesday.
Authorities said the waste was transported under tight security.
There was a police escort, ambulances, fire crews and a rapid response team with the convoy of trucks carrying the waste, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Swatantra Kumar Singh, head of the gas disaster relief and rehabilitation department in Bhopal, told news agency PTI that some of the waste would initially be incinerated at the Pithampur disposal facility and its residue would be tested for toxic residues.
He said special measures have been taken to ensure that fumes from the incinerator or ash left behind do not pollute the air and water.
However, activists and people living near the landfill are protesting the move.
They said a small amount of waste from the Carbide factory was destroyed at the plant on a trial basis in 2015, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
It ends up polluting the soil, groundwater as well as fresh water bodies in nearby villages, they said.
But Mr Singh denied these claims.
He said the burning of toxic waste would not have an “adverse impact” on nearby villages.
Over the years, the authorities made several attempts to dispose of the waste from the Bhopal factory, but abandoned their plans after facing opposition from activists.
In 2015 India's pollution control board said toxic waste would be incinerated in Gujarat, but the plan was scrapped after protests.
The council later identified sites in the states of Hyderabad and Maharashtra as well, but faced similar resistance.
The Bhopal gas tragedy is one of the worst industrial disasters in the world.
According to government estimates, about 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since.
But activists say the death toll is much higher. Victims continue to suffer the side effects of poisoning even today.
In 2010 An Indian court convicted seven former plant managers, imposing small fines and short prison terms. But many victims and activists say justice has yet to be served given the scale of the tragedy.
Union Carbide was an American company that Dow Chemicals purchased in 1999.