Deeply disturbed

As I was preparing for my Monday's presentation, my heart was deeply disturbed by the information and images I saw regarding the topic I was researching on.

The topic was Bhopal/Union-Carbide Disaster.

Many of you will say "Huh? What disaster?"

Well, it is regarded as the worst industrial disaster ever recorded. On the early mornings of December 3, 1984, in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, 40 Tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas along with hydrogen cyanide and chloroform was released into the nearby dense community due to terrible engineering and management failures, instantly killing 3,800 people and much more (around 20,000) within the first month alone.

Until this day, an estimate of 200,000 people were affected from this disaster.

Quote from a this site:

Remembers Aziza Sultan, a survivor: "At about 12.30 am I woke to the sound of my baby coughing badly. In the half light I saw that the room was filled with a white cloud. I heard a lot of people shouting. They were shouting 'run, run'. Then I started coughing with each breath seeming as if I was breathing in fire. My eyes were burning.

Another survivor, Champa Devi Shukla, remembers that "It felt like somebody had filled our bodies up with red chillies, our eyes tears coming out, noses were watering, we had froth in our mouths. The coughing was so bad that people were writhing in pain. Some people just got up and ran in whatever they were wearing or even if they were wearing nothing at all. Somebody was running this way and somebody was running that way, some people were just running in their underclothes. People were only concerned as to how they would save their lives so they just ran.

"Those who fell were not picked up by anybody, they just kept falling, and were trampled on by other people. People climbed and scrambled over each other to save their lives – even cows were running and trying to save their lives and crushing people as they ran." In those apocalyptic moments no one knew what was happening. People simply started dying in the most hideous ways. Some vomited uncontrollably, went into convulsions and fell dead. Others choked to death, drowning in their own body fluids. Many died in the stampedes through narrow gullies where street lamps burned a dim brown through clouds of gas. The force of the human torrent wrenched children's hands from their parents' grasp. Families were whirled apart," reported the Bhopal Medical Appeal in 1994.

"The poison cloud was so dense and searing that people were reduced to near blindness. As they gasped for breath its effects grew ever more suffocating. The gases burned the tissues of their eyes and lungs and attacked their nervous systems. People lost control of their bodies. Urine and feces ran down their legs. Women lost their unborn children as they ran, their wombs spontaneously opening in bloody abortion." According to Rashida Bi, a survivor who lost five gas-exposed family members to cancers, those who escaped with their lives “ are the unlucky ones; the lucky ones are those who died on that night.”

From another SITE, regarding the anatomy of the dead bodies:

"The first of the autopsies revealed that the "human blood had turned purple red", the lungs had become "ash colour" and filled with their own secretions. "The tracheas were so "dry that the mucous flaked off on touch". Sometimes the blood was so thick that if you dipped your finger in it and lifted it, it would come off like a wire."

For the images, click HERE.

Let us remember those who fell that night. Pray that disasters like this will not happen again.