Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Breathlessness, difficulty walking, failing vision, giddiness, poor digestion, knee joint pain, swelling in feet, sleeplessness and anxiety. There is hardly anyone in JP Nagar who is not suffering from one or more of these problems.
Located just across Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) plant in the city, there is hardly any house, which has not seen one or more deaths due to inhalation Methyl isocyanate gas that leaked from UCC plant. Medicines are given, tests are run, but nothing changes. At present, there are 600 houses in JP Nagar. 1in 1984, there were 400.
“Time stopped for us in December 1984. Since then, the situation has only worsened,” says 81-year-old Nathuram Soni. He had become almost blind after being exposed to the gas. Treatment has partially restored his vision. His wife Girija Devi has swelling in her legs.
“Zindagi pahad ban gayee hai,” he says. Ramesh Singh, 75, had come to Bhopal in 1970 from Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and worked as a mason in UCC plant. On the night of tragedy, he and his family members covered their mouths with a wet cloth and did not leave their house.
That protected them from the gas but water from the tube wells which they consumed for more than 20 years was laced with deadly chemicals dumped on UCC premises. And that has had its effect. Bano Bee, 80, lost four members of her family including husband, brother-in-law, brother and grandson to the gas. She is diabetic and cannot walk for more than a few steps without becoming breathless.
“I can’t sleep at nights. When I sleep, I only dream of that night, with people around shouting, “bhago, bhago,” she says, adding, “Us raat ki subah nahin”. Her other grandson is maimed since birth. Ratanlal, 70, who used to polish floor tiles, is now confined to chair. Ditto for Noorjehan, 60, who lost her son to lethal gas. “I was breastfeeding him when I heard commotion outside. We all ran. Later, my son developed chronic kidney problems and died,” she says.
Sanjay Yadav, 50, who was 9 when tragedy struck, has two sons who are 90% physically disabled. The elder one is 27 and the younger is 25. “They cannot do anything on their own,” says Yadav who is a contingency field worker with malaria department.
Doctors say there is no treatment for their condition. It is a genetic problem. Yadav fell off his two-wheeler many times due to sudden attack of giddiness. “No medicines work? Jaisi sarkar hai, waisi dawa hai. Na uska kuch asar hai, na iska,” he added.
