The ghast­ly acci­dent in Bhopal India on Decem­ber 3, 1984 claimed more than 3,000 lives and injured many thou­sands of oth­ers, as a dead­ly gas leaked from the Union Car­bide plant. 

A radio ama­teur team head­ed for Bhopal, learn­ing first-hand from offi­cials, the mag­ni­tude of the dis­as­ter and how best to meet the need for communications. 

The emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions were pro­vid­ed ini­tial­ly to author­i­ties, but quick­ly extend­ed to relief agen­cies. The team also helped trace miss­ing peo­ple and find rel­a­tives through­out India and overseas. 

After five days the radio ama­teurs saw their job done, but were urged by author­i­ties to stay on dis­trib­ut­ing food and sup­plies in the dis­or­gan­ised city. 

Anoth­er fine exam­ple of com­mu­ni­ty aid deliv­ered vol­un­tar­i­ly through the effec­tive use of train­ing, knowl­edge and skill. 

 A full report “Indi­an Ama­teurs in Emer­gency”, writ­ten by Grace Dasan VU2AIG of Bom­bay appeared in the WIA’s jour­nal Ama­teur Radio in June 1985. 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.