Bhopal gas tragedy- an introduction

The  industries of developed countries like  US,etc find it difficult to carry out the environmentally hazardous productions in their native place due to several strict impositions and laws for the welfare of people which compels them to make home the third world countries like India... The inefficient plants with less of safety arrangements have been dumped here n there n we don't even oppose because all of us can foresee the economic viability but what is the actual scene ? Don't you think we had to pay a higher cost,instead! when , one such project came to India ,Bhopal. Union Carbide's operations in India go back to the beginning of this century. In 1924, a plant for batteries was opened in Calcutta. By 1983 Carbide had 14 plants in India manufacturing chemicals pesticides, batteries and other products. Union Carbide's operations in India were conducted through a subsidiary , Union Carbide India, Ltd. (UCIL). The parent US Company (UCC) held 50.9 % of UCIL stock. The balance of 49.1% was owned by various Indian investors. Normally foreign investors are limited to 40% ownership of equity in Indian companies, but the Indian government waived this requirement in the case of Union Carbide because of the sophistication of its technology and the company's potential for export......
                            But when it started incurring losses due to decrease in the use and thus the demand of pesticides which were already banned abroad, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) was  to close the plant and sell it off.But when no buyer was available in India, it had to be shipped to another country. Negotiations toward this shutdown were completed by the end of November 1984. Financial losses and plans to dismantle the plant exacerbated Carbide's already negligent management practices that led to this tragedy. While saving money for both Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and UCIL, negligent maintenance and huge reductions of trained personnel produced bitter results in front of our eyes.........
                            3rd of dec,1984 was the biggest shock for the people of Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh when a wind carrying poisonous  grey cloud of MIC i.e Methyl Isocyanate floated out of the plant site of UCC(Union Carbide Commission),between 12.00 a.m.-1.00 a.m.No one could have ever imagined the amount of loss be it monetary or in terms of no. of lives.
                             It can never find any parallel in the chemical industry owing to the extent of devastation. This nightmare is supposed to have taken about 8000 lives(over 3 times of the officially declared total), who were people with their hopes n dreams ironically attached to the technology n prosperity, the plant stood for. As many as 4-5 lacs people  have been estimated to have suffered irreparable injuries from the ever-haunting after-effects of the traumatic event and till date it is difficult to say if the future generations would be free from its impact.This incident alarms us as to the cost we are paying for the progress.