It was an early morning of chilly December. Many walked out of their huts or opened their windows to experience the cold weather wind on their faces.
However, what they got was a whiff of gas. The killer gas. The toxic gas claimed lives of more than 25,000 people while it affected over a lakh, till date.
During the early hours of December 3, 1984, the hazardous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums.
Thousands still suffer from respiratory difficulties, risks of cancer and blindness, neurological disorders and female reproductive disorders.
Did winters aggravate the disaster? Would the impact be any less if it was summers or extreme winters?
There are many disasters that are a result of a human induced activity. However, weather later becomes a factor leading to the widespread catastrophe. And Bhopal gas tragedy was a classic example of this situation.
Weather played a considerable role once the MIC gas escaped into the atmosphere. Once the gas reached the atmosphere, wind speed and direction determined the rate of dispersal and areas that were later affected.
Weather – A big factor leading to the tragedy
Though it is difficult to conjure the weather on the night of 2nd and 3rd of December, 1984, given it was a cold winter night in Central India, temperatures would have been at a maximum of 26°C and minimums at about 11°C in Bhopal. This means that the leaked gas settled down on the ground levels instead of escaping to higher altitudes due to light wind that generally remains calm during the winter season. Had it been summers, the gas would have drifted away with the high winds to the places away from the slums of Bhopal, sparing people who chose to stay indoors on that fateful day.
More importantly, in winters ‘inversion’ of temperature sets in. This inversion acts as a lid on the lower layers of the atmosphere and does not allow pollutants (in this case, polluting gas MIC) to escape in the upper atmosphere.
“It means that highly toxic MIC was trapped in the breathing ‘space’ of Bhopal. Due to inversion, MIC could not drift away with strong air currents and sustained in the atmosphere for longer period, affecting more & more people,” says Dr.RM Saxena, Professional Meteorologist, Skymet Weather Services.
The tragedy was a result of an accident, however, weather and atmospheric conditions did not take much time to transform it into a tragic incident.
According to industry reports the groundwater under the UCIL factory is still not recommended for consumption.
Despite India’s greatest industrial disaster leaving indelible marks on the memories of people and consequential damage to the environment, judicious selection of appropriate sites for projects is still violated. Several power plants and thermal projects pollute the portions of land and waterbodies that are utilized by local communities, neglecting the safety of people till day.
Whether its weather related calamity or man-made, it’s the people who are vulnerable to the disaster. Certainly, government needs to look into the matter deeply that their economic outcomes do not adversely affect people and environment.
