Om Prakesh, 57, was a policeman near the railway station on the night of the explosion and has now been detailed to guard the old Union Carbide factory where he lives, sleeps and eats for days at a time. "You couldn't walk on the railway platform without stepping on dead bodies," he said of that night, "if I had been working at the factory then, I'd be dead for sure, but now it is OK- the government says its safe."