Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
The other day I was watching “Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984” on Netflix, a heart-breaking true story based on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984, in which more than 15000 people were killed due to the leakage of deadly MIC (Methyl Isocyanate) Gas from the pesticide plant Union Carbide (India) Ltd. an American Multinational company located in the heart of Bhopal.
The story highlights the heroic efforts of railway men who risk their lives to save thousands of people from the deadly Gas which engulfed the entire city on the deathly night of December 2nd 1984. The story shows the poignant state of people running for their lives in a panic to escape from the Gas, gasping for breath, and ultimately choking to death due to inhaling more and more gas.
The tragedy occurred nearly 40 years ago, when the population of Bhopal was only 850000 and despite the evacuation process, more than 15000 people died and half-a-million people were affected with different ailments and birth defects for generations.
Imagine a similar disaster-like scenario happening in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad or Bangalore. The toll would mount to millions with no escape route. In fact, the above documentary gives an opportunity for us to introspect and check our preparedness to face such situations.
In a city like Bangalore, the vehicle population has touched over 1.1 crore as on 30.09.2023. In the last week of September last year, the tech corridors witnessed a massive traffic jam when the majority of the employees took their personal vehicles to their offices. Many motorists took more than 2 to 3 hours to cover a small distance of 3 to 4 Kms. It was a hilarious sight to watch the food delivery boys like Swiggy and Zomato etc. delivering food to the customers stuck in the cars at the traffic jams.
THIS HAPPENS ONLY IN BANGALORE!
While the Netizens posted a lot of videos and memes of the food delivery on the roads, this incident reminds us of the serious nature of threat looming over the city in case of any emergency evacuation. The major IT parks in Bangalore viz, Integrated Hitech Software Park, International Tech Park Ltd., Prestige Tech Park, Safina Software Technology Park, Salarpuria Infinity, Brigade Tech Park, Manyata Tech Park, Bagmane Tech Park, Embassy Global Village etc. combinedly provide offices to nearly a million people, with Manyata Tech Park alone providing offices to more than a lakh of employees.
In the case of an emergency evacuation, the cars can’t even reach the main exit gates of the Tech parks or the main exit gates of the residential gated communities, forget about reaching the main exit roads. This would be a similar situation in all the major cities. People will die more of stampede than of the real cause of death.
The Government should have an evacuation policy and a Disaster Management policy in place in major cities in case of emergencies and where evacuation becomes necessary.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.