 "A woman takes part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the anniversary of the Bhopal Gas disaster. It's been 40 years since poisonous gases escaped the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, killing thousands and injuring many generations on. File image/AFP")
Just after the clock struck 12 at night on December 2, 1984, an industrial accident began to unfold at Union Carbide chemical plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal — that has gone down in history as the world’s worst industrial disaster.
A poisonous gas known as methyl isocyanate started leaking from the plant, resulting in what is known today as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in which it is estimated that 3,000 people died, while thousands, if not millions, continue to suffer from the ill effects of the gas even today — 40 years from the accident.
What went wrong? How did the gas leak? Who was responsible for the world’s worst industrial disaster? And where does the matter stand today?
We go back in time and get you all the answers.
Night of the deadly Bhopal Gas leak
The Union Carbide plant on the outskirts of Bhopal was a pesticide manufacturing company, a subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), a US corporation.
On the night of December 2, 1984, an engineer of the plant was flushing water through a corroded pipe when a series of valves failed, allowing the water to flow freely into one of the three-storey tanks holding the toxic chemical in a liquid state. This caused a rapid and violent reaction. The tank shattered in its concrete casing and spewed a deadly cloud of MIC, hydrogen cyanide, monomethylamine and other chemicals.
Soon, people living around the plant began to complain of a burning sensation in their eyes, while others reported difficulty in breathing, resulting in fainting and loss of consciousness. As Aziza Sultan, a survivor told The Guardian, “About 12.30 am, I woke to the sound of my baby coughing badly. In the half-light, I saw that the room was filled with a white cloud.
“I heard a lot of people shouting. They were shouting ‘Run! Run!’. Then I started coughing, with each breath seeming as if I was breathing in fire. My eyes were burning.”
No one understood what was happening and along with the poisonous gases mixing in the air, came the panic. All one could see was doomsday — people vomiting on the streets, others convulsing and dropping dead. There were few who even choked on their own body fluids.
Those who managed to reach hospitals were confronted with doctors who didn’t know what to do. In many cases, hospitals didn’t have the equipment to handle such a situation.
It’s hard to put a death toll on the incident — Union Carbide pegged the toll to be 3,800. However, municipal workers said there were 15,000 corpses.
Bhopal Gas tragedy lives on
And even 40 years, later the tragedy continues to live on. People who survived the initial night of horror, struggle with various ailments and illnesses. Take Gas Devi, who was born on the night of the horror. A daily wage labourer, Gas struggles with constant pain in her chest, one of her lungs is not developed fully and she keeps falling sick.
“My life is a living hell,” Devi told AFP. “I wish I had died that night.”
And Gas is not alone. Rashida Bi, a survivor, told The Guardian, “The lucky ones are those who died on that night.”
Also read: At Remember Bhopal Museum, histories of those affected by 1984 disaster are preserved against apathy, neglectThat’s because while the Union Carbide plant shut down there was no clean-up. The gases continue to mix in the air and have now mixed with the groundwater. Testing of groundwater near the site in the past revealed cancer- and birth defect-causing chemicals 50 times higher than what is accepted as safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. This has led to many contracting cancer and brain damage. A study in 2023 revealed that the accident affected a generation of babies still in the womb.
A 2019 report by the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) said at least 30 tonnes of the poisonous gas affected more than 600,000 workers and nearby inhabitants.
Another NGO’s study pointed out that those diagnosed with diabetes, coronary disease, neuropathies, and arthritis were three times higher in people exposed to the gas leak.
And if you want proof of the tragedy, a visit to the people living there will prove it. Ask Tasleem Bano, a 48-year-old who was exposed to the gas as a child. Speaking to AFP, she said, “My son’s twin died in my womb. And even the one who survived couldn’t speak until he was six years old.”
“Doctors say he is like this because of the gas,” said Tasleem.
Mortality among the exposed population is also much higher. Satinath Sarangi, founder of Sambhavna, a clinic, says, “In 2011, we’d taken stock through our registered cohorts and we found there was 28 per cent more mortality among the gas exposed.”
Call for compensation over Bhopal Gas tragedy
In the aftermath of the accident, a legal battle began, with activists demanding damages and that Union Carbide take accountability for their actions in the tragedy.
In 1985, owing to a lack of legislation on the same, India passed the Bhopal Gas Leak Act, which permitted the Indian government to act as the legal representative for victims.
A case was lodged against Union Carbide and its chairman, Warren Anderson, was arrested but subsequently released on bail, following which he left the country. In 1991, he was charged in India with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”. However, he never faced trial and died at the age of 92 in a nursing home in Florida in 2014.
Five years after the tragedy, in February 1989, the government and Union Carbide reached an out-of-court settlement of $470 million. As per the Supreme Court, the family of the dead would be given Rs 1,00,000-3,00,000. Partially or fully disabled would receive Rs 50,000 to 5,00,000 and those with a temporary injury would receive Rs 25,000-1,00,000.
In 2010, the Indian government filed a curative petition, seeking additional compensation from Dow Chemicals — the company that bought Union Carbide. The plea stated that the previous settlement was based on incorrect data on deaths and losses. Furthermore, the environmental damage had not been taken into consideration.
On March 14, 2023, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice SK Kaul and comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Abhay S Oka, Vikram Nath, and JK Maheshwar dismissed the petition.
Rachna Dhingra, a social activist, notes that justice evades the survivors of the tragedy. In an AFP report, she says, “Until today, not a single individual has gone to jail — even for a day — for killing more than 25,000 people and injuring half a million people, and contaminating the soil and groundwater. Bhopal has taught corporations how to get away with murder.”
With inputs from agencies