Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Bhopal’s gas tragedy is the biggest accident in the industrial history of the whole world. Thousands of people were killed by poisonous gas (mic or methyl iso-cynite) from Union Carbide’s factory in the morning after midnight on December 3, 1984. There can be differences of opinion regarding the death toll, but no one will doubt about the seriousness of these tragedy. So suffice it to say that the death toll was in the thousands. Do not be surprised if the number of affected is in lakhs.
On that ill-fated morning, a cloud of gas created by the leak in Union Carbide’s plant number ‘C’ was carried away with a gust of wind and people were sleeping. People did not understand what was happening all of a sudden? Some people say that gas was causing trouble to the eyes and breathing. People who had a lot of gas in their fans did not live to see in the morning.
According to government figures, three thousand people died within a few hours of the accident. Non-government sources, however, believe that these numbers were nearly three times higher. Not only this, some people claim that the death toll would have been more than 15 thousand. But this sequence of deaths started that night, it went on for years. This continues even after three decades, while we are engaged in an exercise to learn from the lesson of tragedy.
Informed sources say that about 40 tonnes of gas was leaked from the carbide factory and the reason was that water was found in the factory’s tank number 610 from poisonous methyl iso-cynite gas. The incident was followed by a chemical process and resulted in pressure in the tank. Eventually the tank opened up and the gas spread to the atmosphere.
The easiest victims of this gas were also the slum dwellers near the factory. These were the people who had come and lived here from far away villages in search of Daily needs . They breathed his last in his sleep. Just three minutes was enough for the gas to kill people. The factory had an alarm system, but it also remained neutral for hours. However, on earlier occasions it also warned people at times.
When a large number of people, affected by gas, came to the hospital complaining of eyes and shortness of breath, the doctors did not even know how to treat this disaster? The number is also so high that there is no place to recruit people. If many were not able to see, then a large number of people were bending their heads. Everyone was having trouble breathing. It is roughly estimated that about 50 thousand people were treated in the first two days.
As it was feared, initially the doctors themselves did not know exactly what to treat. There were no doctors in the city who had any experience in treating people suffering from Mick gas. Although eight hours after the gas leak, Bhopal was considered to be free from the effects of poisonous gases, but Bhopal has not recovered from this accident in the year 1984. … and as long as it is remembered, there will be no possibility of recovery.