Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Recounting How One of the World’s Worst Industrial Disasters Happened in 1984
Bhopal, December 2: December 2 marks 38 years of the horror that had occurred in the Madhya Pradesh capital in 1984 when thousands of people were killed and affected due to the tragic gas leak from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL). The disaster took place on the intervening night of December 2 and 3 and to date, the horrifying incident is considered among the world’s worst industrial disasters.
Over 500,000 people living around the plant were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other highly toxic substances like carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, etc. More than 15,000 died in the tragedy while many thousands suffered severely and permanently disabling injuries after toxic gas made its way into and around the small towns located near the plant. Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Supreme Court Seeks Centre’s Response on Compensation to Victims, Next Hearing on October 11.
Recalling the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy:
At around 11 pm on December 2, 1984, while most of the Bhopal residents were sleeping, an operator at the plant noticed a small leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and increasing pressure inside a storage tank. The vent-gas scrubber, a safety device designed to neutralize toxic discharge from the MIC system, had been turned off three weeks prior. Apparently, a faulty valve had allowed one ton of water for cleaning internal pipes to mix with forty tons of MIC. National Pollution Control Day 2022 Date & Significance: Know All About the Day Observed in Memory of Victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
A 30-ton refrigeration unit that normally served as a safety component to cool the MIC storage tank had been drained of its coolant for use in another part of the plant. Due to this, pressure and heat from the vigorous exothermic reaction in the tank continued to build. To put more into the tragedy, the gas flare safety system out of action and had been for three months.
A UCIL employee triggered the plant’s alarm system at 12:50 am.
Activation of the system triggered two siren alarms: one that sounded inside the UCIL plant, and a second directed outward to the public and the city of Bhopal. The plant was evacuated, however, there was a lot of miscommunication between the plant authorities and the police department did not have the necessary information about what had happened. Within an hour,
By 1.00 am, December 3, loud rumbling reverberated around the plant and nearly 30 tonnes of MIC escaped from the tank into the atmosphere. Within hours, the streets of Bhopal were littered with human corpses and the carcasses of buffaloes, cows, dogs, birds, and other animals that came in contact with the toxic air.
What Happened to UCIL?
An out-of-court settlement was reached in February 1989 after several legal activities involving the governments of India and the US and Union Carbide agreed to pay US$470 million for damages caused in the Bhopal tragedy. In 1991, the local Bhopal authorities charged UCC chairman and CEO Warren Anderson, who had retired in 1986, with manslaughter. He was declared a fugitive and the Indian government was directed to press for extradition from the United States. However, the US Supreme Court did not allow his extradition. In 2010, seven former employees of UCIL, all Indian nationals and many in their 70s were convicted of causing death by negligence.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Dec 02, 2022 06:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
