Thread by @myhistorytales

#OnThisDay 2nd December 1984 - one of the world's greatest industrial tragedies happened in Bhopal

A mix of bad luck, small acts of carelessness, human negligence led to the deadly Bhopal gas leak

Join me on a #historytour to revisit that unforgettable crazy night

🧵

Union Carbide India Ltd set up a pesticide plant in Bhopal, MP in 1939. It was owned by an US company UCC & produced the pesticide Sevin.

The plant produced a gas Methyl isocyanate(MIC), a highly deadly component, which combined with Naphthol produced the final pesticide

2/n

The world had moved to making pesticide without using MIC but UCIL still made & stored MIC in large pressurized gas tanks & used them in the final reaction.

In early 1980s, the demand for pesticides were low leading to large amount of unused MIC getting stored at the plant

3/n

Through 70s, minor gas leaks became common but many didnt give it much voice. Few workers inhaled the toxic gases during these occasions & died

Journalist Rajkumar Keswani wrote in local Bhopal newspaper 'Wake up, people of Bhopal, you are on the edge of a volcano'

4/n

In 1984, 3 tanks named 610,611,619 stored MIC and on night of 2nd Dec, tank 610 had a glitch in its pressurization leading to workers feeling gas exposure.

By 11.30pm, one tank leak was found. The MIC supervisor decided to investigate more after a tea break till 12.15am!!

5/n

By the time tea break ended at 12.40am, tank 610 had reached a critical state. Temperatures were off scale. An emergency valve broke off. 30 to 40 tonnes of MIC had escaped into air within an hour.

Employees realizing what had happened & decided to trigger the sirens

6/n

There were supposed to be 2 sirens that had to trigger together. One for the plant & one for the city. But few yrs earlier, they had decoupled the city siren to not scare the locals unnecessarily! So only the plant siren went fully & the city siren came on briefly & turned off

The public started to feel it by 1am. People woke up to suffocation & complaints went to the police. When the police called UCIL, they responded saying 'Everything is OK'

The local hospital started getting complaints & due to lack of communication, they treated for Ammonia leaks

Tank 610 emptied by 2AM. Fully. The wind had taken it all over Bhopal for more than a hour.

The public siren sounded. Finally at 2.15AM.

Police & Hospitals were informed of a MIC leak finally. At 2.30AM.

By this time the entire city was coughing.

9/n

Those who ran in panic inhaled more.

MIC was more dense than air. So it settled down quickly. So, shorter people and children inhaled it even more! 😐

Choking followed & the brain & kidneys were affected. 1000s were dead by sunrise. Mainly children.

10/n

It wasnt just people who were affected. MIC was extremely harmful to animals & they had an adverse reaction.

Cattle, dogs etc became bloated on effect and died enmasse on the roads.

Trees started shedding most of their leaves by the next day.

11/n

4000 people had died overnight. The images of mass people dead on streets, bloated animals and crying families that hit the world press took everyone by shock

Photographer Pablo Bartholomew took a pic titled 'Bhopal Disaster Girl' which became the signature image of the tragedy

UCC President Warren Anderson flew the next day to India to supervise relief. He was arrested on arrival & charged with negligence.

But there was a lapse & he got hold of a landline phone to call US to pull strings.

13/n

The phone call worked.

Within an hour, the Rajiv Gandhi govt got pressure from the US to release Anderson or face consequence. The Indian Govt buckled & Anderson flew back from MP the same day.

And he never returned to India until his death. 14/n

Over the next few days, more thousands of people died. And many had blindness, brain malfunction and many other side effects. Rumours made people leave Bhopal enmasse

The world press woke up to the disaster. And investigations began as to what and who led to this tragedy. 15/n

India took up the case against UCC & sought a $3.3 billion penalty. As usual the court case went on for years. UCC didnt admit liability while India argued for fundamental human decency. UCC was bought by Dow Chemicals & the case kept getting transferred

Protests raged for years

By 1991, Anderson was charged with homicide & declared a fugitive. But the US refused to extradite him

The case went on and on for 26 yrs & 7 employees of UCIL was convicted in 2010. They were all already 70+ & released on bail within 2 months with a fine of Rs 1Lakh 😨

17/n

More than 1Lakh people were affected eventually. The plant was closed in 1986 & Bhopal Gas Act was passed to aid disaster claims & further avoid such tragedies

UCC finally paid only a settlement of $470 million dollars. Distributing that took 20+ years more 😑

18/n

Was it Corporate Negligence? Lack of safety audit?
A supervisor's bad decision?

The debate will not help the dead and the bereaved though

But, its important to know the history to not let it repeat though

RT this thread if you found this story interesting & follow for more.