A look into the Yashavi Rasyan Blast
A Still from the Video
Through this project, we have tried to articulate different concepts ranging from ghosts and ruins to biological citizenship. The case of Yashavi Rasyan, a chemical factory located in a special economic zone in Bharuj, Gujarat, deals with volatile chemicals such as dimethyl sulphide and nitric acid. This accident resulted from human negligence and mismanagement while transferring chemicals in a storage tank, causing a series of blasts. The accused were booked under IPC Sections 258, 337, 338 and 304 but never behind bars. This case reminds us of the Bhopal Gas tragedy and constant deniable and lack of accountability from the company that followed after. After June 2nd, numerous stakeholders acted on legal trajectories, bodies at risk, NGOs, and the state itself.
We wanted to dwell on the aspects of ghosts, ruins, and monsters through a non-human environment lens. Even after redefining or revamping the land, the ghosts of the accident will still be prominent. Continuous and intensive human reconstruction have led to ecosystems being created solely by the Anthropocene. We tend to associate ruins with dystopian futures, but what happened in Bharuj is a present-case scenario that actively affects human and non-human forces. For instance, ecological erasure caused the loss of an entire ecosystem of fishes in the surrounding water bodies because of inefficient water disposal methods. The idea of having interventions fundamentally makes us rethink the notions of biodiversity loss and conservation.
This tragedy could have been easily avoided if the organisation had invested more resources into the factory. The absence of sirens/hooters when working chemicals at high temperatures might seem important yet forms such a crucial element. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the corporation to deposit an interim sum of Rs 25 crore with the District Magistrate (DM) of Bharuch, as well as to establish a disbursement strategy to guarantee that the money reaches the recipients out of which only 9 crores have been reimbursed. But the question again arises: Can industries be responsible enough to maintain a safe and healthy working environment for everybody? The blast forces us to reimagine the relationship between the industry and the environment. Can we have economic growth at an environmental cost? How does the state look at the post-Yashavi Rasyan structure; the issues of water disposal, surrounding land, and resettlement also becomes evident through this case. We can also look at the victims or bodies at risk and understand the economy around them. Concerns of lack of initiatives by the state, inefficient health infrastructure, corporates either trying to hide or benefit out of the situation, the constant underplaying of the magnitude of the disaster, reliability risks, monetary compensations, transparency and the vast asymmetry of knowledge surfaced when we looked into the blast of Yashavi Rasyan.
Link to Project: https://youtu.be/-3mVq0cqrtQ
