A Luminant Living Testimonial to Rapacious Industrialization: MIC Gas Crippled Bhopal | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

It is over thirty years since the Bhopal Gas Tragedy happened in the chilly night of December 2nd/3rd (00:15 am) 1984. Poisonous gases like Methyl Isocyanate (MIC), Phosgene were escaped from the Union Carbide India Limited Plant, a subsidiary of the U.S. based Union Carbide Corporation, situated in the north-eastern side of the city of Bhopal. The impact was tremendous, catastrophic and genocidal and has no parallel in industrial history. People were unaware of what was making them choke. They fought for life saving breath left their warm beds in panic, in the darkness running helter-skelter, hopefully away from the murderous toxins that had clouded the skies. In an hour or so 3,000 of them could not outrun the deadly poisons, and they collapsed all over, the city, in a bizarre dance of death. Thousands from a city of million plus vanished from the city, coughing, retching and mortally scared. Those who escaped from death, the poisons have made their life hell for ever and are suffering and dying. There are lessons here for the multinationals, the developed countries, the developing countries and the community.