Thirty years after India’s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, contamination owing to the leakage of poisonous gas from the Union Carbide pesticide factory continues to remain a burning issue of negligence, injustice & of lackluster, indifferent attitude shown by our own government when it came to protecting its citizens.The leak of 40 tonnes of methyl-isocyanate (MIC) on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, killed thousands of people in its immediate aftermath and continued to kill people in the years that followed. Throughout the years, death toll & claim settlements have risen from 3787 to more than 16,000 people. The question which remains unanswered though is whether decent amount of protective measures were taken, were there any warning signs of impending disaster?
If we go by company’s version; this was an act of sabotage or at best a human error!! (height of callousness). The company never public ally accepted its mistake, never cared to apologies to India or sufferers of this grave error. If company was indeed so forthright in all safety measures, why an expert probe was NOT allowed into this matter?
If we go by third party sources(Ref: Indian express 12.12.14 article Bhopal: 30 years later);the deadly accident was preceded by several warning signs that should have set off the alarm bells well before the tragedy unfolded. 1976: Eight years before the accident, two trade unions complained of pollution inside the plant. 1981: A worker died after inhaling a large amount of phosgene gas. 1982: A phosgene leak forced 24 workers to be admitted to a hospital. A month later, a methyl isocynate leak affected 18 workers. 1983-84: By 1982-end, during 1983 and the initial months of 1984, there were leaks of MIC, chlorine and phosgene. It was also alleged that as the Union Carbide boss, Anderson knew about a 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which identified 30 major hazards. Rather than fix them in Bhopal, only the company’s identical plant in the US was fixed. Neglecting these hazards in Bhopal caused the deadly explosion.In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former chairman of UCIL, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted but had died before judgment was passed.
In the aftermath there were reports of backdoor settlements between union carbide company & government with warren anderson being let off.
30 years have lapsed & wait for justice continues for affected people & the 3rd generation of sufferers. All the hoopla apart, the basic facts raised by this disaster is ”HUMAN GREED” which is all empowering & which stops at nothing!
In the aftermath, there were several startling revelations about corners being cut, safety being compromised, untrained staff forced into doing expert work…in short it was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. So long as we humans will continue to discriminate among st us based on rich-poor, caste, race, developed & developing….(the list goes on)such tragedies I am afraid shall continue to happen
Revisiting the Bhopal Gas tragedy
