In many seminars that
I have attended since September 11 on the dangers of an act of mass casualty
terrorism using a chemical weapon, there were references to the Bhopal disaster
as a forewarning of what could happen if the terrorists manage to get hold of a
deadly chemical weapon and use it. Many of those who made the reference, at the
same time, expressed their surprise and disappointment over the fact that the
Indian authorities had not documented the details of what happened in Bhopal in
1984, how the situation was dealt with by the authorities, what kind of
difficulties they faced and how they got over them. -- B Raman
By B Raman
June 14th, 2010
Bhopal disaster should teach us some
lessons
A major worry for the international community has been the danger of
Al Qaeda using a chemical weapon to indulge in an act of mass casualty
terrorism. Studies have been made of the possible scenarios and how to prevent
and counter them. Dealing with a chemical disaster — deliberately caused by
terrorists or other criminal elements or due to the criminal negligence of those
producing and storing them for industrial and other purposes — is now an
important component of any national disaster management
plan.
In India, too, we have a high-powered national disaster management
authority and one understands it has prepared different contingency plans to
deal with different types of disasters — a chemical disaster being one of them.
One would have thought that a detailed case study of the disaster in Bhopal in
1984 due to the leakage of chemical gases from a plant of the Union Carbide
would have been the starting point of any such contingency planning.
What would happen if Al Qaeda manages to get hold of a deadly
chemical weapon and uses it to kill people in their hundreds and thousands?
People would start dying without knowing what is happening to them. Security and
other bureaucrats involved in disaster management would take some time to
understand why people are dying and set in motion the drill to deal with
situation. Al Qaeda is not going to announce beforehand that it would be using a
chemical weapon. It will use it and let the world realise that it has used it
from the initially unexplained deaths.
That is what happened in Bhopal in 1984. People in their hundreds
working in the factory, moving around in the town and living in their homes
started falling dead without anyone understanding why they are dying. It took
some time for the authorities to realise that the deaths were due to the leakage
of gas from the factory and its spread across the town. They did not know what
kind of a gas it was and how to protect people from its effect.
No proper study had been made beforehand of the dangers of a leak —
due to negligence or deliberately caused. There had been no contingency planning
to deal with the resulting situation. It goes to the credit of the authorities
of Madhya Pradesh and the Governments of India and of Rajiv Gandhi, who had just
then taken over as the Prime Minister, that without any previous experience of
dealing with that kind of situation, they rose to the occasion and did whatever
they could to save lives at tremendous risk to themselves. Despite their
praiseworthy efforts, over 3,500 people died — as many as during the September
11 terrorist strikes in the US.
In many seminars that I have attended since September 11 on the
dangers of an act of mass casualty terrorism using a chemical weapon, there were
references to the Bhopal disaster as a forewarning of what could happen if the
terrorists manage to get hold of a deadly chemical weapon and use it. Many of
those who made the reference, at the same time, expressed their surprise and
disappointment over the fact that the Indian authorities had not documented the
details of what happened in Bhopal in 1984, how the situation was dealt with by
the authorities, what kind of difficulties they faced and how they got over
them.
In fact, according to them, no proper case study of the Bhopal gas
disaster has been made to draw lessons for future contingency planning to deal
with similar disasters. If this is true, this does not speak well of us and
underlines once again our casual attitude in such matters. Before the officials
of Bhopal who dealt with the disaster pass away, their account of the disaster
should be documented and a thorough case study done.
It goes to the credit of Rajiv Gandhi that he realised the importance
of contingency planning to deal with similar disasters in future and set up a
special cell in the Ministry of Home Affairs for this purpose. This cell
allegedly stopped functioning after he left office as the Prime Minister in
1989. Contingency planning for disaster management started receiving the
attention it deserved only after September 11.
The writer is a former senior official of Research & Analysis
Wing and a leading security affairs expert.
Source: The Pioneer
9:24 PM
Sultan Shahin
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