Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Veteran Photojournalist Raghu Rai Describes How ¡®Corporate Crime¡¯ Looked Like 34 Years Ago

Thirty Four years ago, world¡¯s worst industrial disaster till date hit the central Indian city of Bhopal. On the night of December 02, people in deep sleep woke up with immense pain while thousands didn¡¯t wake up at all.

Those who didn¡¯t are considered ¡®lucky¡¯ or ¡®fortunate¡¯ for having inhaled such a heavy dose of poisonous gas that they suffered a quick death. Generations after generations continue to experience the lethal effects of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) that have made babies and teenagers disabled in many forms.

A pesticide plant in Bhopal, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) leaked tonnes of poisonous fumes due to improper maintenance and dysfunctional alarms that failed to alert the authorities. The disaster took place at Plant Number C of the UCIL factory.

Photo Credit: Raghu Rai

As per official record, methyl isocyanate got mixed with water used for cooling the plant. The mixture led to a generation of volumes of gases, which put tremendous pressure on Tank Number 610. The tank cover was unable to withhold the pressure of multiple gases which released close to 40 tonnes of MIC and other chemicals that engulfed Bhopal.

According to Madhya Pradesh government, 3,787 deaths related to the gas release were recorded. However, in an affidavit, submitted in 2006, the government said that the Bhopal gas leak caused 5,58,125 injuries that included approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.

A veteran photojournalist, Raghu Rai had reached the accident site on the morning of December 03 and he shares with us how ¡®Corporate Crime¡¯ looked like when 8.5 lakh people back then were coughing, facing breathlessness and faced eye and skin irritation:

¡°We took a 7 am flight in the morning and by 9 am we were at the site. As we were driving to the location, there were dead animals, bloated animals, cows, buffaloes, dogs anything on the streets as if somebody had bombed the city with chemical weapons.

Photo Credit: Raghu Rai

We went to the hospital when all the sick and poisoned children were being brought in and a whole lot of dead bodies were lying on one side. From children to men and women were being brought in a very bad condition.¡±

Politicians, bureaucrats were blamed for their corrupt practices and most importantly for allowing an industry with a malfunctioning safety system, valves and lines.

Rai informs that it was very silly of them and all other journalists to not have taken any safety precautions for themselves. ¡°None of us thought that we had to take any precautions because the incident took place in the middle of the night for some time and then it was over, so we never thought that we had to take any precaution. But what was very strange was the fact that this poisonous gas was heavier than the air and it was in the month of December when it¡¯s fog and smog.

The reason why more than 8,000 people were killed in one go because the gas that leaked from the Union Carbide was not flying, it was crawling all over. So, anybody who came in the way of this gas, they inhaled too much gas and they died right away.¡±

Photo Credit: Raghu Rai

While mass cremations and funerals were taking place in the city, children and elderly were affected by unbearable stomach pains and vomiting. MIC due to its denser nature had a tendency to fall towards the ground and therefore affected people of a smaller stature more profoundly.

It has been three decades since UCIL changed its name to Dow Chemicals but even babies of pregnant women have fallen prey to permanent impairments. We ask Rai has justice been served to the Bhopal disaster victims?

¡°Unlike 9/11 where 2,000 people died and every family got compensated heavily, India is an overpopulated, corrupt country where lives do not mean much to the politicians; to the bureaucrats, it is one of those very sad stories. But after the exhibitions we did and the awareness we created with the photographs, some compensation was paid to them but not enough to come out of the tragedy.¡±

Photo Credit: Raghu Rai

He further says, ¡°the truth is that this factory, Union Carbide should have been shut down several years ago because Union Carbide had lived its life and it is only in India, due to the corrupt practices, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who allowed this factory to function long enough until the tragedy happened. It was a corrupt practice that had brought death and this was the biggest industrial blast ever in the world.¡±

In 1984, the hospitals weren¡¯t well developed, the medical staff was seriously ill of qualified doctors and its resources were scarce, to say the least, to treat a population of more than 4.5 lakh. Due to unavailability of correct information, the doctors had no clue whatsoever regarding what struck the city.

Every patient came in rushing with the same problem. On the 20th anniversary of this gas leak when Rai visited the Bhopal Gas Memorial hospital, he saw hundreds of registered victims of the gas who were lying in that hospital; dying a slow death. While those who had inhaled a high concentration of the poison died on the spot; those who had inhaled less gas had permanently damaged their heart and lungs.

Photo: Raghu Rai

¡°Everyone was dying because of the same problem. By midnight, the entire world knew what was happening. There was a silence of death, nobody was talking to anybody.¡±

On being asked if the absence of information tools back then had made any difference, Rai informs, ¡°compared to today¡¯s social media network, TV channels, there was a big difference, it wasn¡¯t that everyone knew and all were getting panicky. In fact, only Bhopal and that particular area in Bhopal was heavily affected, the Union Carbide factory and usually people were beginning to see what had happened.¡±

Photo Credit: Raghu Rai

34 years later, the abandoned UCIL factory has repeatedly come under scanner for leaking chemicals and pollutants. These continue to contaminate nearby ground wells, aquatic animals and even affect human beings after samples of chemicals were found in women¡¯s breastfeeding milk. Long-term health effects resulted in chronic conjunctivitis, scars on the cornea, respiratory problems like aggravation of TB and chronic bronchitis, impairment of memory and intellect.

Despite being recognised as the world¡¯s worst industrial disaster as of 2010, the abandoned industry area has become a dumping ground for hazardous chemicals representing that no lessons have been learnt from our past tragedies.