I am a chemical engineer who worked in the industry for eight years before joining IIT Kanpur. During 1983-85, I was consultant for a project near Indore. On my way to Indore, I landed at Bhopal by train on the fateful night of December 2-3, 1984. Due to gas leakage there was a chaos at the railway station. A train load of people were stranded and suddenly got exposed to the deadly gas. I decided to reach Hotel Bharti located at about one km from the station. During this 12-15 minute slow walk with baggage in hands, I was exposed to the toxic and pungent gas. My eyes were burning and became red with swelling. I checked in about 1 am along with other people looking for shelter.
I found out from the hotel manager that a gas leak had occurred in the nearby Union Carbide plant. The manager also informed that the police were asking people to run away from their homes. I knew about the chemical process at the Bhopal Plant. The assistant works manager, RB Rai Chaudhary, was known to me. Also the marketing manager of Union Carbide at Delhi, Dr UV Singh, was my friend. He visited Kanpur occasionally. Hence, information about the leakage of methyl isocyanate, through the thick cloud of which I had just walked into the hotel frightened me. Not for my life, but for the fate of those on the road.
The details of leakage of methyl isocyanate gas were known later. The accident occurred due to poor maintenance, failure of a control valve and consequent leakage of water into the gas tank. The mixing of water with methyl isocyanate being an exothermic reaction, the temperature and consequent pressure in the gas tank rose to a very high level. The failure of the rupture disc caused leakage of the gas through scrubber and gas flare points, both of which were inadequate to handle large quantity of deadly gas stored in the underground tank.
Being heavier than air, the MIC gas floated close to the ground. It is due to this characteristic of the deadly MIC gas that the decision of the Bhopal residents to run away proved far more disastrous and fatal than the failure of the gas plant alone. About 1,500 deaths are reported to have occurred on that fateful night and almost all of them were on the roads, of children, women and elderly people.
I advised my friends at the hotel to move to the top floor and close all windows and ventilators and breathe through wet towels and wash eyes with cold tap water. I requested the manager to warm milk and give about a cup to each hotel occupant. Milk works a coagulant for toxic matter, thus it prevents its passage into the blood stream for harmful effects.
It was nearly normal by about 5:30 am. I had the maximum trouble with my eyes. On reaching Indore, I was taken to an eye specialist. About three weeks after the Bhopal accident, I had a chance meeting with Dr RA Mashelkar, deputy director, National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) Pune, in a flight from Mumbai to Indore, who was going to Bhopal with the NCL report on the gas tragedy. I told him about my personal experience and pointed out that imperfect plant design, operational deficiencies and human error apart, the real cause of thousands of deaths on the roads of Bhopal was the unnecessary scare created by the local police who asked people to run away than to stay indoors. I don?t think my inputs to Dr Mashelkar during the flight had any affect on the NCL report for this notorious industrial accident.
An international conference was organised at IIT Kanpur during 2004, the 20th year after the Bhopal disaster. The organisers deleted my observations in my paper about the role of local police. The proceedings carried a rosy picture of the role played by the Bhopal police on that fateful night and thereafter, which is certainly an eyewash.
A year later I was called to Bhopal for a medical check-up that revealed bronchitis and onset of cataract in both eyes. I was 47 at the time of Bhopal disaster. After three personal hearings in the court at Bhopal during 1997-98, I was granted a compensation of Rs 35,000. If my travel expense to Bhopal four times, medical examination and court hearings, are taken into account, this was a negative compensation.
?The writer is a former professor of IIT, Kanpur