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| The infamous pic of the buried child in the Bhopal incident |
Thirty-one years ago a terrible incident occurred at Bhopal
which has left the lives of people wet eyed for the rest of not
only their lives but also the next of their kins. Let’s revisit and have a look
as to what actually happened on that unforgettable night of 2-12-1984.
Union carbide, a well know multi national had well
established itself in the heart of India in the city of Bhopal. Their reputation
spoke for themselves as they were one of the very few known multi national to
operate with high levels of profit on a consistent basis. Let’s explore a bit
of history on Union carbide.
Bhopal during the 1970’s was a poor city just like many of its
Indian counterparts. People were looking for work, work and just work. It was
then that the Union carbide came up with the proposal of setting up one of its
unit in Bhopal. The top officials of the company had great relationship with the local government. The government officials
were happy as well because they were able to hit two birds with a single pebble
i.e to provide jobs to unemployed which would greatly benefit them during
elections and secondly the fact that they can use it up as a weapon to show “development”
has been done in Bhopal, a result of which an MNC has its branch in such a
small city. Union carbide was also under huge profits as they got lands at a
very low cost to set up their factories. It was a total win-win situation for both the parties involved.
Union carbide manufactured a pesticide called “Siven” which
infected the nervous system of the pests and killed them. All seemed
to go well for a few years but then came the doomsday. The company wanted to
cut down its costs, even at the risk of employees safety. They replaced the
experienced candidates with freshers (as they can pay them a lesser pay
package) stating that they will train them and make them as perfect as their
predecessors. This did’nt have much effect on safety as the newly employed
candidates lacked experience but not talent. But the company’s greed
just did’nt end here.
As it is said that “Every misfortune does ring a bell before
its arrival” similarly there were danger bells in this case to but they were
all ignored. A few years before the deadly incident occurred an employee lost
his life, thanks to the company’s cost saving techniques, which was just an
indication to occurrence of the calamity. If the company had reacted at the
death of this employee many lives would have had been saved. But that did’nt
happen. The company switched off the cooling system that cooled an “underground monster”,
which was an important ingredient in
manufacturing of siven. The Nitrogen
levels present in underground tanks along with the "monster" was alarmingly decreasing
and the company didn’t bother to enhance the tanks with more nitrogen. Even the
pressure indication meters which showed the pressure levels in underground tanks, were not working properly. A blocker or safety valve
which stopped water from mixing with the "deadly monster' had to be installed by
opening a pipe but the company did’nt consider this as an important task since
it cost them around 2-3 hours of a labor’s work time and this work gave them no
productivity but would have enhanced the security of employees which was not on the
company’s profit agenda.
So now let’s see the "monster" discussed above and the one
which wrecked havoc in Bhopal that night. It was “Methyl iso cyanide” a deadly
dangerous and highly reactive chemical stored in huge amount in three
underground tanks in gaseous form. Cyanide
is something, which if you lick you die and this was combined with methyl and
was in gaseous state as well which meant that if the tanks burst, gaseous methyl iso cyanide could
easily evaporate into the atmosphere.
So on that deadly night a few workers were performing a
routine clean up work of some pipes. A strange incident occurred. They were
cleaning a huge pipe but the water that they poured from one end didn’t flow
out from another end and this caused a few tremors in the workers but none of
them knew this would trigger something really bad a couple of hour later. They
called a few experts to track the path traversed by water in the pipe. Before the experts could start
their trail water did start to flow out from the other end which made everyone
breath a sigh of relief, but not for too long. What everyone missed was the fact that some of the water, used up for cleaning somehow changed its path and
headed towards the deadly containers having methyl iso cyanide. On its way the water stream also took the rusty parts of iron as well. The safety valve was missing which could
have been the best water blocker but since it was not installed water flew
viscously. Nitrogen gas could have had stopped water from interacting with
methyl iso cyanide but since it had exhausted, water eventually did meet with
monster and they both turned out to be a deadly duo. The result of this mixture (and
also not to forget the iron rust particles which water bought with it) gave way to a
deadly chemical reaction in the tank which increased the pressure levels
greatly in the tank. But no one was aware of it, since the pressure valves were
not working properly. Had the cooling system switched on,it would have had
solidified the resultant chemical. The pressure slowly increased and reached a
great extent and it was now that the pressure valves shooted up directly from zero
to maximum and the staff got a rough idea of what they were up against. With very
less reaction time in hand they were quick to realize that methyl iso cyanide
has escaped from the tank and is heading towards chimney from where it can directly interact with the atmosphere thus creating a cloud of death. In a last
attempt to avoid the disaster they tried shooting water jets at the gas while
it was moving out from chimney, but they neither had sufficient cold
water nor the water jets were strong enough to reach the peak of chimney from
where the gas flew out. They did ring the emergency siren but it was only for
employees not the city of Bhopal which was deep into sleep since it was
midnight.
What happened next is remembered till date. As this deadly
gas entered people’s lungs they started to cough initially and their eyes began
to heat up giving them a burning sensation. Slowly more and more people and
eventually the whole town was under the cluthches of this deadly gas. People started
to madly run towards hospitals. Many of them losing their lives on the way and many
after reaching hospital. The doctors had no idea as to what had hit the town
such that it was threatening to take Bhopal’s population to zero in a matter of
night. Even though the doctors came to know that it was methyl iso cyanide but
they did’nt know how to cope up with the patients and what treatment to be
given. They could helplessly only see
people dying in front of them. The news of Bhopal tragedy spread all over India
and even the world. Everyone wanted to know how did it all happen.
The then CEO of Union carbide Warren Anderson visited India
the next morning. Everyone wanted him arrested and it did happen to. But he was
released on bail within four days courtesy his good relations with local government
and he left India immediately never to return. (Warren Anderson died in
September 2014)
Indian Government appointed Mr. Tyagarajan to investigate
what exactly happened that night at the factory. Tyagarajan was surprised to
know about the security compromisation policy of the organization but was even
more worried to know that their were still another two underground tanks which
had more methyl iso cyanide then what evaporated out. He decided that the only
way to make Bhopal safe was to exhaust these two tanks entirely. But for that to happen the factory had to restart its operations which meant that Bhopal-2 would be on the cards big time. But there was no other option. So the factory restarted its operations to exhaust all of the Methyl iso cyanide. But government decided to take better
safety measures this time. They covered entire plant with wet cloth to keep it cool,
helicopters carrying water flew on top of factory ready to splash water bombs
if needed. As the news of the factory restarting its operation spread across
Bhopal everyone started to vacate the city and it turned out to be a land of
the departed, a city of ghosts were no one wanted to live.
Mr. Tyagarajan and his team did start their work and after
seven long days of siven manufacturing they were able to fully exhaust all the
methyl iso cyanide in the remaining two tanks. Bhopal was declared safe to live
but who wants to live in this city which gave them such a horrible night.
The Union carbide did say that it was some mischevious
employee who wantedly let water into that tank which caused the reaction and
not their lack of safety measures which made many laugh out their lives. The reaction
caused that night was so fateful that people who were affected then are still
suffering. But the problem is that even their sons and daughters born
way after the occurrence of this incident are affected by it. They are
genetically unstable. Some have crucked legs, some don’t have nose, some cant
talk clearly and so on…In 1989 five years after the occurrence of this incident
Union carbide decided to pay out compensation to the victims. They gave away
some huge amount of dollars to Indian government which disbursed it to the
victims. What was hilarious was the fact that it only accounted for Rs. 12410
for each victim, which means you have to find a doctor who within 12410 will
not only cure you but also your future generations. Can such a doctor or a
hospital be found remains to be the so called “YAKSHA
PRASHNE” till date.
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