Abstract
We, the then Mayor and Chief of Police of Bhopal, were the two people
on whom the responsibility of handling the world's worst industrial
disaster fell unceremoniously on the cold night of December 2-3,
1984 when 41 tons of MIC gas was released from the Union Carbide
plant in Bhopal. With the company initially in denial mode about
the release and then calling it a `tear-gas' type and providing no
information on antidote, and with the limited means of evacuation,
handling of medical emergency affecting hundreds of thousand, identification
and disposal of the thousands of dead, it was probably the most challenging
task faced by a duo in peace time. The local people, the medical
community, the railway staff, the NGOs, were all very helpful. We
narrate the happening and the handling of the consequences and the
spot decisions that had to be made with the hope that no such accident
happens anywhere.
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