• The Bhopal Disaster which is

commonly referred to as Bhopal Gas

INTRODUCTION Tragedy was a gas leak incident in
India, considered one of the world’s
worst industrial catastrophes.
 UNION CARBIDE INDIA LIMITED
• UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of
Union Carbide Corporation (UCC),
with Indian Government started in
1969 at the northern state of India.
• In 1994, the Supreme Court of India
allowed UCC to sell its 50.9% share.
Union Carbide sold UCIL, the
Bhopal plant operator, to Eveready
Industries India Limited in 1994.
 PLANT PRODUCTION PROCESS

• The UCIL factory was built to produce the pesticide using methyl
isocyanate (MIC) as an intermediate.

Methylamine (1) reacts with phosgene (2) producing methyl

isocyanate (3) which reacts with 1- naphthol (4) to yield carbaryl (5)
 THE ACCIDENT
• During the night of 2–3 December 1984, water
entered Tank containing 42 tons of MIC.
• Water leaked into tank from valves while
workers were cleaning the clogged pipe which is
400 feet above it.
• As the result of exothermic reaction, About 30
metric tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) escaped
from the tank into the atmosphere of Bhopal in
45 to 60 minutes.
UCIL PLANT DISASTER
 THE DEVASTATION
• The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the
government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of
3,787 deaths related to the gas release.
• Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another
8,000 or more have since died from gas related diseases.
• A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused
5,58,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and
approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling
injuries.
• 2,000 bloated animal carcasses had to be disposed
AFTERMATH OF TRAGEDY
• Medical staff were unprepared for the
thousands of casualties.
• Doctors and hospitals were not informed of
proper treatment methods for MIC gas
inhalation. They were told to simply give
cough medicine and eye drops to their
patients.
• "Operation Faith": On December 16, the tanks
611 and 619 were emptied of the remaining
MIC. This led to a second mass evacuation
from Bhopal.
 SUPPORT TO PEOPLE
• Immediate relief was given by government two days
after the tragedy.
• Widow pension of the rate of Rs 200/per month (later
Rs 750) was provided.
• One-time payment of Rs 1,500 to families with monthly
income Rs 500 or less was decided.
• 2,486 flats in two- and four-story buildings were
constructed in the "Widows colony" outside Bhopal.
Infrastructure like buses, schools, etc. were missing for
Widow Colony
at least a decade.
 SUPPORT TO CULPRITS
• Indian government closed plant to outsiders and failed in making the data
public.
• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) were forbidden to
publish their data on health effects until after 1994.
• The Indian Government and UCC deny permanent injuries were caused by
MIC.
• UCIL paid a token of $470 million even though asked a total compensation of
$3.3billion.But the government said nothing.
• The government sent safely Mr. Anderson the CEO of UCIL at the time of
massacre, to US.
By,
Tirth Govani
Yash Sutaria