The Bhopal Gas Tragedy and other Industrial accidents in

India

The Bhopal disaster was a gas leak incident in India, considered one of the world's worst industrial. It occurred on
the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal,Madhya
Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanide gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of
hundreds of thousands of people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and
the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate
3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in
2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely
and permanently disabling injuries. As many as 25,000 deaths have been attributed to the disaster in recent
estimates.

UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), with Indian Government controlled banks
and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. In 1994, the Supreme Court of India allowed UCC to sell its 50.9
percent share. Union Carbide sold UCIL, the Bhopal plant operator, to Eveready Industries India Limited in 1994.
The Bhopal plant was later sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. Company purchased UCC in 2001.

Civil and criminal cases are pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal,
India, involving UCC, UCIL employees, and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster.[7][8] In June
2010, seven ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by
negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment
allowed by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died before judgment was passed. [1]
Industrial accidents and hazards have become the order of the day with new technologies evolving everyday and few
people knowing how to use these technologies. This dangerous trend is prevalent more so in the developing
countries, not to say that this does not happen in developed societies. India has been a country which has been at the
receiving end of industrial hazards since the 1980s. It all started with the tragic Bhopal Gas Tragedy and then the
 petroleum gas leak in Delhi caused by Sriram Industries but sadly we have not learnt our lessons from these
incidents, with the result that even today we continue to face industrial hazards, cases in point being the recent gas
leaks in Mumbai and Bengal’s Durgapur district, not to forget the equally tragic situation of people affected by the
Mayapuri radioactive scrap deal. In this article, we will first try to understand the definition of industrial hazard,
then go on to talk about each industrial hazard mentioned above and in what way can we prevent such incidents
from taking place in the future.

It should be clear to that industrial hazard come under technological hazards and they are different from social
hazards that include terrorism, which is the most prominent one. Now, an industrial hazard is a hazard which occurs
when one strives for commercial gains in quick time and mostly industrial hazards happen in an industrial area
which is making harmful substances like dyes, chemicals and radioactive materials. These industrial hazards have
disastrous environmental repercussions as well as cause great casualty to the human habitation in the factory and
around it.

Now, having understood what an industrial hazard is, we proceed to look at some of India’s greatest industrial
accidents and hazards and how they have impacted the lives of people and also what solutions should we draw out
so that such things don’t take place in the future.

1. The first and foremost incident that comes to mind when we talk of industrial accidents was caused due to a
hazardous stored chemical called Methyl Isocyanate. – the Bhopal Gas tragedy where so many people were
killed. The gas escaped into the air leading to many people having breathing problems, eyesight loss, nausea and
vomiting. The reason for the escape of the gas into the air was the fact that the storage tanks in which they were
stored were poorly maintained and there had been no safety norms in place. The incident could have claimed
much less number of lives had the hazardous chemical industry been set up where human habitation had been
lesser. Sadly this was not the case.
2. The second major industrial accident which was caused due to use of hazardous chemicals was in the capital in
1986 where because of the leak of oleum gas into the air 1 person died. It is after this incident that the Supreme
Court in a landmark judgment said that any industry involved in the manufacture of inherently dangerous
chemicals or hazardous chemicals will have to indemnify all those who suffer on account of the carrying on of
such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity regardless of whether it is carried on carefully or not. So this
clearly means that the onus is completely on the enterprise which is makes the hazardous chemical.
3. The third and rather recent incident was the one in the Mayapuri industrial area, Delhi, where radioactive scraps
were found leading to an industrial hazard for the people who were selling the scrap material. In the process, out
of the 6 people admitted because of skin discoloration and other defects as a result of working with these
hazardous materials, 1 died after he had multiple organ failure and others continue to battle for life even as their
blood platelet level continues to fall down to dangerous levels. Apparently, these scrap dealers claim that this
radioactive source came from the Delhi University’s Chemistry department which was later proved to be true, but
the question that continues to puzzle the layman is that how could such an industrial hazardous mechanism
continue to flourish for such a long time? Investigations are still on to ascertain what made this industrial hazard
flourish and what were the other sources from which they got there hazardous chemicals.
4. The fourth and fifth incidents are the most recent ones where industrial hazardous chemicals were released due to
which many people fell sick. While in Mumbai, more than a 100 people fell sick after they inhaled the hazardous
chlorine gas that leaked into the atmosphere. And shocking as it may sound, this is not the first time that chlorine
gas leakage has been reported in Mumbai. An instance in fact was reported in 2003 and then later in 2007 with
this recent one being the latest.
5. The fifth and the last of industrial accidents that were caused due to a hazardous chemical was reported where 28
people took ill after gas leaked from the scrubber area of Blast Furnace 2 in Durgapur.
Discuss-

i. What advice would you give to the government to prevent such disasters from happening again?

ii. If you were the District collector of Bhopal, how would you have dealt with the aftermath of the disaster?

iii. As a citizen which side of the development vs. environment debate would you take and why?