Horror night of Bhopal gas tragedy
Bhopal gas tragedy is the biggest accident in the industrial history of the whole world. On midnight of December 2, 1984, there was a leak of MIC gas from the Union Carbide Company in Bhopal, Thousands of people were killed in this incident and millions affected it. The incident of a leak was entirely due to the company’s negligence, earlier also there were leaks, but the company did not take measures to protect. Even today, the number of victims is increasing with the Bhopal gas tragedy.
Union Carbide Corporation:
Union Carbide Corporation opened a pesticide factory in India in the name of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in 1969. After 10 years, in 1979 a production plant was installed in Bhopal. A pesticide was prepared in this plant, named Sewin. Sevin was actually the brand name of Carbaryl, the name of the chemical.
Gas Incident happened in December 1984:
Union Carbide Corporation opened a pesticide factory in India in the name of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in 1969. After 10 years, in 1979 a production plant was installed in Bhopal.
A pesticide was prepared in this plant, named Sevin. Sevin was actually the brand name of Carbaryl, the name of the chemical.
The initial steps taken by UCIL for this incident were also not less responsive. At that time when other companies used something else to produce Carbaryl, UCIL used Methyl Isocyanate (MIC). MIC was a poisonous gas. Since the use of MIC was less cost of production, UCIL adopted the MIC.
History of Bhopal gas tragedy:
There was an incident even before the Bhopal Gas Accident. In 1981, a phosgene gas(colourless gas or very low-boiling, volatile liquid COCl2) leak was formed in which one worker died.
In January 1982, the leakage of phosgene gas was once again damaged in 24 workers. He was admitted to the hospital. In February 1982 there was a leak, but this time MIC had leakage. In that incident 18 workers were affected. In August 1982, due to exposure to a chemical engineer Liquid MIC, 30 percent was burnt.
Horror night of 2 December 1984 :
The Bhopal gas tragedy happened on midnight of December 2-3, 1984, with the leak of toxic gas in the company’s factory called Union Carbide. The reason is there was a leak in the tank E610 (tank’s name) where 42 tons MIC(toxic methyl icocyanate) contain MIC is react with water. Due to the intrusion of water, there was a strong reaction inside the tank which gradually got out of control. About 8,000 people died in this accident within two weeks.
To make the situation frightening, the pipeline was also responsible for the rig. MIC, react with water and increase the temperature of the tank 4 to 5 degree Celsius to 200 degree Celsius. This resulted in Emergency pressure on the tank and 45 -60 minutes, 40 metric tons of MIC leaked.
The huge amount of toxic gas from the tank spread across the entire area like a cloud. That cloud of gas contained nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, Monomethlmin, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and phosgene gas. Bhopal’s entire South East region was hit by the poisonous cloud. When exposed to a gas, people living nearby started having problems like suffocation, burning in the eyes, vomiting, flatulence, difficulty breathing.
Children were more affected by this. People should survive by running away but even then the large amount of gas entered their body.
The next day thousands of people had died. People were massively buried and cremated. Within a few days, dead bodies of nearly 2,000 animals had to be immersed.
The surrounding area trees became barren. In the hospitals and temporary dispensaries, there was a crowd of patients. Around 17,000 people were admitted to hospitals at one time. According to government figures, 2,259 people were killed instantly.
An affidavit in the court mentioned that due to the gas leak, a total of 5,58,125 people were injured, 38,478 were partly temporary disabled and 3,900 cases were permanently disabled. The problem was not limited to the time of the accident but it has been affecting till now. The children born are getting serious health problems.
Judgement in Bhopal gas tragedy ?
In 2010, the court’s decision made the families of the victims unhappy in this tragedy. Because the court imposed a imprisonment for two years and more than one lakh rupees, but soon after the sentence was pronounced, all the accused were released on bail.
The main accused of the incident was created by the director of the factory Warren Anderson. He died on September 29, 2014. Immediately after the incident, he left India and fled to the US. The Indian government did not succeed in bringing Anderson from America.
According to Dan Kurzman’s book ‘Killing Wind’, Anderson’s hand was in the hands of the government system. According to the book, Anderson was first brought to Delhi from Bhopal through Special Airplane and then some necessary documents were signed and sent to the home.
This was the black day in Indian history and this was one of the biggest failure of the Indian government.