Learnings from Bhopal tragedy

Around 12.40am on December 3, 1984, nearly 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, a poisonous gas, started to leak from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant near Bhopal. Within the hour, toxic fumes sheathed Bhopal in a dome of death and choked thousands of people. The official figures showed that 5,295 died though activists later estimated that at least 15,000 lives were lost, while many more suffered from morbidities arising out of exposure to the noxious gas. Probes found that the company had compromised on safety measures. While the State was unprepared to handle a disaster of this scale, what followed was even more shocking. Five years later, the Centre agreed to a settlement with UCIL, and its parent company, the US-based Union Carbide (UCC), for a paltry $470 million, based on a gross underestimation of the toll (3,000 deaths was the initial estimate) and reparation costs (105,000 claims for compensation).

The settlement was made without taking the victims into confidence and the amount agreed was minuscule considering that the original claim was for $3.3 billion. Seven Indian employees and UCC were held culpable for the disaster and convicted in 2010 — not one of the convicted was jailed even for a day; their appeals against the conviction are still pending in courts. Warren Anderson, then the chairman of UCC, was arrested when he arrived in India after the disaster but was allowed to return to the US. No official faced action for the gross negligence that allowed the disaster to happen, or for the shoddy relief work. UCC was bought by Dow Chemical Company in 2001. With issues of adequate compensation, rehabilitation, and restoration of the site lost in the legal maze, demands for justice continue.

The survivors of the disaster, meanwhile, continued their fight in courts, and the number of claims for compensation have ballooned to half a million. Survivors suffer from untold ailments, including respiratory problems. Promised treatment facilities are yet to be set up and the contaminated factory premises have still not been fully cleaned. Recent industrial accidents, such as that in Visakhapatnam in August 2024 that killed 17 people, show that urgent lessons need to be learnt from the Bhopal gas disaster that continues to haunt its victims. This lack of closure and succour for thousands of people, four decades after that dreadful night, is the real tragedy.

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