Bhopal - a disastrous legacy

On the night of 2 December 1984, some 3,000 sleeping residents were to die in the central Indian city of Bhopal in what was the worst industrial accident in the world ever. In time that staggering figure was to rise to an horrific 30,000 dead. Rajwinder Sahota looks back over the 25 years and counts the still rising cost of the disaster

The personal loss was incalculable. Thirty tonnes of poisonous gas had leaked from ill-maintained equipment at an American owned pesticide factory. The night sky was silently filled with toxic clouds which descended upon the entire township. The death toll was augmented by another 60,000 left disabled; blind, scarred, deformed, burned, stunted, mute and psychologically ruined.

Today, it is a daily routine for victims to crowd into the hospitals for treatment for their ailments. The colossal number of patients reflects the enormity of the catastrophe.

Successive New Delhi governments have struggled to cope with the problems the unique accident has created. NGOs, environmentalists and their lawyers, unceasingly accuse official departments of incomp­etence, neglect, maladministration and corruption. One organisation, the Sambhavna Trust Clinic which itself cares for thousands of patients, claims the city’s water system remains contaminated resulting in continued health hazards.

Litigation and accusations abound. The Sambhavna’s director, Satinath Serangi is highly critical of the lethargy and irresponsibility of officialdom. He reckons the government has not pressed hard enough for realistic compensation for the gas victims. “Union Carbide should be in the dock and held fully accountable. Their cost-cutting policy on proper maintenance procedures brought about this tragedy. They abandoned established safety measures to increase profits. It’s criminal”.

Lechobhai is one of those affected. She was fit and young at 30 when struck by the choking gas that dreadful night.

Barely able to breath and rubbing her stinging eyes, she found she was blinded. She has been mostly shunned by her community. Her husband occasionally calls by with food for her. With other debilitating ailments she cannot do anything for herself and lies in a tumbledown shed with no blanket or means of comfort. Now 55, she says she wished she had been one of the lucky ones who had died in 1984.

Around the corner Ram Sawroop Sahu, at 33 is still a young man but, unable to move except by pushing himself forward with his hands, is permanently seated on the ground. He was affected by the gas toxins when he was only eight. Ram, like so many other victims, has waited years for his claim for compensation to come to court. No one tells him what is happening, his mother does what she can to help him.

The factory stopped working but its faulty and rusting pipes and storage tanks still leak poisons. The site has not been cleared and the remaining grotesque skeleton building dominates the skyline.

Union Carbide president of Indian operations, American Warren Anderson, fled the country within days of the incident and attempts by the Indian government to have him extradited back from the US to face allegations of culpable homicide and wilful neglect have been repeatedly frustrated by American courts.

Efforts to get the rich multinational into Indian courts have always failed, the company washed its hands of the affair long ago.

Peedit Mahila is one of the organisations who have targeted the derelict Union Carbide factory (site vacated by the company in 1999 before selling out to Dow Chemicals) and has plastered the perimeter walls with frank, outspoken anti-American and anti-Indian government slogans. The Peedit Mahila’s senior spokesman is Abdul Jabbar and he sums up the Bhopal tragedy philosophically: “Bhopal has been subjected to two disasters, the first occurred in 1984 and the second is the authorities’ continued failure to act responsibly in the best interests of the people of this city”.

One witness to the events on that historic night was Dr Dolly Chandra, from Bhopal, who is now professor of ophthalmology at the Memorial Hospital. She recalls the choking stench at the time and vividly remembers thousands of people wandering and groping around with watering eyes and intense irritation that was to lead to complications later. “Most people had the upper layer of the cornea detach and could not open their eyes, leading to photophobia”, she says.

Another doctor, paediatrician Hemant K Dwivedi, worked solely on disaster victims at the Jawaharlal Nehru Gas Relief Hospital for 13 years. Of the children he treated 93 per cent had been directly or indirectly exposed to the chemical fall-out. This invariably brought about respiratory failure with chronic obstructive airway disease, producing narrowing of the bronchi and loss of breath. Many adult victims with these very serious conditions, he observed, committed suicide. He said second generation patients who continued to appear up to the year 2000 showed symptoms which were related to indirect exposure. He added: “Congenital abnormalities of the newly born were likely to develop three months into pregnancy.”

An autonomous trust was set up by the regional Madhya Pradesh government and eight outreach units were developed in 1998. Thousands of registered gas patients receive continuous treatment in cardiology, neuro-surgery, ophthalmology, pulmonary medicine and other areas.

Dr K K Maudar is director of all eight units. His records show the major conditions are chest and respiratory diseases and eye ailments. Eighty senior doctors oversee the specialist departments. He rejects claims that patients are neglected. “We treat thousands of people each year. There is no justification for critics saying patients are disregarded. We are doing all that is possible in the medical field and the accident victims receive the best possible attention”, he insists.