Question

Bhopal gas tragedy occurred in
A) 1982
B) 1984
C) 1986
D) 1988

Answer 1

Around 3,800 people were killed by the immediate effects of the gas leak and several thousand succumbed to it by the next decade. A scanty amount of 470 million USD was secured from the Union Carbide Corporation by the then government as compensation.

Complete Answer:
- Due to the central location and good transportation network of Bhopal, a pesticide plant was established by the American corporation of Union Carbide in 1970.
- Later in 1984, Selvin, a pesticide was being manufactured by the plant at a quarter of its rate due to the decreased demand of the pesticide.
- Due to low profits, the plant decided to keep the production rate high whereas they completely ignored the safety standards.
- The local government saw Union Carbide as a struggling industry due to its low production.
This gas leakage occurred on the night of 3rd December of 1984.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Additional information:
- Thirty-six years ago, on the terrifying night of 3rd December of 1984, a leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from three storage tanks of the Union Carbide Factory caused the massacre of thousand innocents and permanently disabled the survivors.
- According to the research as shown afterwards, five to six lakh people suffered from long-term illness due to this accident.
- Many researchers have seen the abnormal increase of several chronic diseases in the area as well as the cases of high rates of spontaneous abortion and birth defects.

Note: After this disaster, in the entire region, the rate of stillborn babies rose by 300% and the neonatal mortality rate grew to 200%.