Swaraj Puri was the Superintendent of Police (SP) at the time of the disaster.
When I got to know that I was successful in being able to schedule an interview with Mr. Swaraj Puri, I was really looking forward to knowing the insights of the disaster from a person who was actually present and played a major role in evacuation and helping the people out. I entered Mr. Puri's house and in an instant he recognised me and made me feel very homely. As we began talking, he asked me about my goals and what questions I would like him to answer. I realised that he wanted to be cautious with what he said so that he doesn't get emotionally carried away.
We started talking about the incident and I asked him, "What was the scene like when you first got to know about it?" He thought for a moment and then began talking. He gave me all the details that someone from the control room had come to inform him about something being wrong in the city. He also mentioned that he heard a siren at some point and because he had come home, he grabbed his jacket and decided to go to the Carbide area to check what is wrong. He went onto tell me that he tried to get in touch with the control room and the person who answered said that there has been some leak. However, the person did not mention the seriousness of the situation so he decided to go have a look himself. Once he came closer to the area, he saw lots of people walking towards him wearing jackets, pullovers and some were even carrying quilts on top of them which seemed very unusual. As he approached the factory, he noticed that it was really cloudy, and that he had started feeling choky, his eyes were watering and he assumed it must be some gas because of the pungent smell. Because he was aware of his responsibilities, he decided to go somewhere where he could try and control the situation from. He entered a hospital and the doctors informed him that people were complaining of watering and burning eyes and a choking feeling which meant that the gas was poisonous. When he reached back to the control room, he tried to recruit as many officers as possible to try and get the situation under control. He further went onto describe that the first major relief measure was getting a number of cars from the ministers' house to rescue the people.
One sight that he described to me which really gave me a heartache was a little girl holding a baby boy in her hands and he said that the first body they recovered in the morning was of that little girl. After hearing this, I could hardly imagine what it must have been like for the thousands of people who were present there. Around 3:30 am, an officer from the Carbide factory informed him that the leak had stopped. Until this point of time, nobody knew what had leaked and caused the disaster. Only then, a professor from the Department of Forensic sciences informed the control room that the gas was methyl-isocyanate. They tried to get in touch with as many people as possible and take precautions. He described that by the time it was morning, "We started counting the dead. There were 26 dead bodies found at the railway station." Later in the morning, he chief minister called for a meeting to discuss relief measures. At this point, there was another rumor that another leak had occurred, though it was false. People had started protesting, shouting and screaming on the streets and everybody was extremely unhappy with the situation. The relief measures they provided included blankets, food items, doctors, medications etc.
While the interview was coming to an end, I asked him, "What do you think the situation is like now?" By this point, he appeared quite upset having remembered the whole incident. He said that because his family and he himself had suffered, he felt the government and police force could have rather should have done a better job at controlling the situation and providing people the support they needed. Even though resources and knowledge was limited, he believed that more could have been done. Today, the disposal of the Carbide's toxic waste is still a problem. This has caused many problems in the daily lives of people living near that area including their drinking water, breathing air. He said, "I feel like a greater amount of concern should have been shown towards the victims for relief. Merely providing them an amount of money is not enough, they need to be resettled within a social and cultural environment that is beneficial and comfortable for them."
Although Mr.Puri is a retired government officer now, he makes sure he can help the people as much as possible. More people like him are needed in our society to make our world a better place.
When I got to know that I was successful in being able to schedule an interview with Mr. Swaraj Puri, I was really looking forward to knowing the insights of the disaster from a person who was actually present and played a major role in evacuation and helping the people out. I entered Mr. Puri's house and in an instant he recognised me and made me feel very homely. As we began talking, he asked me about my goals and what questions I would like him to answer. I realised that he wanted to be cautious with what he said so that he doesn't get emotionally carried away.
We started talking about the incident and I asked him, "What was the scene like when you first got to know about it?" He thought for a moment and then began talking. He gave me all the details that someone from the control room had come to inform him about something being wrong in the city. He also mentioned that he heard a siren at some point and because he had come home, he grabbed his jacket and decided to go to the Carbide area to check what is wrong. He went onto tell me that he tried to get in touch with the control room and the person who answered said that there has been some leak. However, the person did not mention the seriousness of the situation so he decided to go have a look himself. Once he came closer to the area, he saw lots of people walking towards him wearing jackets, pullovers and some were even carrying quilts on top of them which seemed very unusual. As he approached the factory, he noticed that it was really cloudy, and that he had started feeling choky, his eyes were watering and he assumed it must be some gas because of the pungent smell. Because he was aware of his responsibilities, he decided to go somewhere where he could try and control the situation from. He entered a hospital and the doctors informed him that people were complaining of watering and burning eyes and a choking feeling which meant that the gas was poisonous. When he reached back to the control room, he tried to recruit as many officers as possible to try and get the situation under control. He further went onto describe that the first major relief measure was getting a number of cars from the ministers' house to rescue the people.
One sight that he described to me which really gave me a heartache was a little girl holding a baby boy in her hands and he said that the first body they recovered in the morning was of that little girl. After hearing this, I could hardly imagine what it must have been like for the thousands of people who were present there. Around 3:30 am, an officer from the Carbide factory informed him that the leak had stopped. Until this point of time, nobody knew what had leaked and caused the disaster. Only then, a professor from the Department of Forensic sciences informed the control room that the gas was methyl-isocyanate. They tried to get in touch with as many people as possible and take precautions. He described that by the time it was morning, "We started counting the dead. There were 26 dead bodies found at the railway station." Later in the morning, he chief minister called for a meeting to discuss relief measures. At this point, there was another rumor that another leak had occurred, though it was false. People had started protesting, shouting and screaming on the streets and everybody was extremely unhappy with the situation. The relief measures they provided included blankets, food items, doctors, medications etc.
While the interview was coming to an end, I asked him, "What do you think the situation is like now?" By this point, he appeared quite upset having remembered the whole incident. He said that because his family and he himself had suffered, he felt the government and police force could have rather should have done a better job at controlling the situation and providing people the support they needed. Even though resources and knowledge was limited, he believed that more could have been done. Today, the disposal of the Carbide's toxic waste is still a problem. This has caused many problems in the daily lives of people living near that area including their drinking water, breathing air. He said, "I feel like a greater amount of concern should have been shown towards the victims for relief. Merely providing them an amount of money is not enough, they need to be resettled within a social and cultural environment that is beneficial and comfortable for them."
Although Mr.Puri is a retired government officer now, he makes sure he can help the people as much as possible. More people like him are needed in our society to make our world a better place.