Toxic gas flooded 12,000 Bhopal residents on December 6

Bhopal, December 3, 2020, Thursday

On December 18, 12,000 people were killed when a gas called methyl isocyanate leaked into the Union Carbide Company in Bhopal. Even though 3 years have passed since this horrific tragedy, the victims of Bhopalkand have not received justice even today. The most brutal incident of piles of corpses in an instant seems to have been forgotten. The methyl iso cinite gas produced at the Union Carbide plant was used to make pesticides but it did not wake up hundreds of sleepers due to negligence. The most surprising thing is that despite such a big incident, there was a discrepancy in how many people died in it. The exact number of people killed was not known for years.

At the time, the then Congress government in Madhya Pradesh claimed seven lives, but an estimated 2,000 died two weeks after the gas leak. While 4,000 people died in the long run due to gas related health problems. In this way, the tragedy overwhelmed more than 15,000 people. An affidavit issued by the government in 2009 stated that the toxic gas leak had directly affected more than six people in Bhopal and partially affected more than 215 others. Initially people experienced vomiting, coughing, eye irritation and then difficulty breathing. Hospitals were overwhelmed with patients after the tragedy. The victims had to be treated by keeping a bed outside a crowded hospital.

Even 90% of doctors did not have enough knowledge on how to treat the victims of chemical gas intoxication. Hospitals and clinics were not equipped with medical equipment and medicines as no one could have imagined such a catastrophic event. In Bhopal, as far as we know, he left the city and started running away. More than 3 lakh people in the city were affected by the gas leak. Of these, more than 3 lakh were under 18 years of age and more than 2000 were pregnant women. The then Chief Minister himself was leaving Bhopal and going to his farm house. Many senior doctors in the city had fled the hospital. In such circumstances, the junior staff was not in a position to treat patients intensively. Eye drops and oxygen cylinders to relieve inflammation in the eyes were missing.