In 1969, as part of its global empire, Union Carbide Corporation set up
its pesticide formulation unit in the northern end of the
city of Bhopal in central India. Initially it mixed and packaged pesticides imported from
the US but was gradually expanded. In December 1979 its
Methyl Iso Cyanate (MC) plant with an imtalled capacity of 5000 tonnes
went into production.
On the night of December 2, 1984, during routine maintenance operations
in the Methyl Iso Cyanate (MC) plant, at about 9.30 p.m., a large quantity
of water entered storage tank no. 610 containing over 60 tonnes of AEC.
This triggered off a runaway reaction resulting in a tremendous increase
of temperature and pressure in the tank and 40 tonnes of MIC along with
Hydrogen Cyanide and other reaction products burst past the ruptured disc
and into the night air of Bhopal at around 12.30 a.m. Safety systems were
grossly under-designed and inoperative. Senior factory officials knew of
the lethal build-up in the tank at least one hour before the leakage, yet
the siren to warn neighbourhood communities was sounded more than one hour
after the leak started.
By then, the poisons had enveloped an area of 40 sq.kms. killing thousands
of people in its immediate wake. Over 500 thousand suffered from acute
breathlessness, pain
in the eyes and vomiting as they ran in panic to get away from the poison
clouds that hung close to the ground for more than four hours.
