It was just another night. But not for people in Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh, India). It was the night of December 2 1984 when the unexpected and tragedy occurred. This event is still considered as world’s worst industrial accident. On this night, the poisonous Methyl Isocyanate gas(MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant and made its way into the small towns around the plant. By the time the alarm went off, it was too late. The gas leak incident claimed 1000s of life immediately after it occurred and many more died days after the incident because of the exposure. Close to a million people sustained injuries and other health issues because of the incident. The toxic waste seeped into the soil which affected the future generation that this cursed land carried.
The cause of this utterly horrifying tragedy was disputed so much. The local activists argued that the incident occurred because of management issues and poor maintenance of the plant. Investigative reports suggested that, the plant had 6 safety systems which failed to work and a refrigeration system which would have been sufficient enough to resolve the problem was out of order. But the Union carbide company claimed that the events occurred due to a sabotage by a “disgruntled employee”. The industry was so keen in absolving themselves from taking responsibility for the event, that they wanted refused to give the chemical composition of the gases released, which made the job of doctors treating the affected people more difficult. This shows the extent to which the industry can steep down their standards that even after such an horror, they are much interested in saving themselves from the blame. Even though Union carbide was a major shareholder of the plant, they refused it and made a statement that their relationship to the Indian branch was a distant one.
The industry did not even care to accept their flaws in maintaining the plant that the Indian government has to take up the responsibility and compensated the families which were affected by the gas leak with a cash as much as 500$. A spokeswoman from the company even commented that this amount was good enough for an Indian family which shows that humans are becoming more cruel and heartless. Many families lost a father, son or a mother and the industrial people think that replacing humans with money would make everything alright. Any amount of money would never be enough to compensate for the loss the families went through because of the tragedy.
Bhopal gas leak incident is one of the multiple events which portray corporate greed for money and how the industries were so focused on financial outcomes that they overlooked other far more important things like safety of the workers and value of human life. The event and the after reactions of the industries also show that humans are capable of going to any extent to cover up their biggest crimes. India being a developing country and poor economical background, it was easier for the industry to cover it up far more easily. These kinds of events make me think that, as technology and science keeps developing, kindness and justice will slowly fade away from the hearts of every human being on earth.
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