BHOPAL, India — Three decades after lethal gas swept through Bhopal, the central Indian city remains haunted by memories of the world’s worst industrial disaster.
Hundreds of survivors of the gas leak that killed thousands of people took to the streets Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the disaster, demanding harsher punishments for those responsible and more compensation for the victims.
On the morning of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide leaked about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air in Bhopal, killing about 4,000 people. Lingering effects of the poison pushed the death toll to about 15,000 over the next few years, according to Indian government estimates.
In all, at least 500,000 people were affected, the government says. Thirty years later, activists say thousands of children are being born with brain damage, missing palates and twisted limbs because of their parents’ exposure to the gas or water contaminated by it.
“I still feel the pain even today. I still see those images,” said Mohammed Ismail, 57, a rickshaw driver whose daughter lost vision in both of her eyes after the gas leak. “On every gas anniversary, I feel it would have been better for me to die that night.”
While the disaster’s anniversary is a major annual event for survivors, it’s largely ignored by most Indians and the government. On Wednesday, there was no comment from any senior Indian government official about the 30th anniversary.
American chemical company Union Carbide has said that the accident, which took place when water entered the sealed tank containing the highly reactive methyl isocyanate, was an act of sabotage by a disgruntled employee, never identified, and not lax safety standards or faulty plant design, as claimed by some activists.
Union Carbide was bought by Dow Chemical in 2001. Dow says the legal case was resolved in 1989, when Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for $470 million and that all responsibility for the factory now rests with the government of the state of Madhya Pradesh, of which Bhopal is the capital.
In an e-mailed statement Wednesday, Union Carbide said that U.S. courts had ruled that the plant was owned, operated and managed by Union Carbide India Limited.
After its closure and the sale of UCIL stock by Union Carbide, the site became the responsibility of UCIL’s successor company, Eveready Industries India Limited. In 1998, the Madhya Pradesh state government revoked Eveready’s lease on the site and assumed all control for it, including remediation, the statement said.
It said that Union Carbide and the rest of rest of the chemical industry has worked to help prevent such an event by improving safety standards, community awareness and emergency preparedness.
In Bhopal, which remains anguished by the disaster, most consider Union Carbide’s settlement with the government an insult.
Even today, the suffering in Bhopal is palpable. Both survivors and activists say that thousands of children born to parents exposed to the gas leak or poisoned by contaminated water have been plagued by birth defects. Cancer rates in the city are inordinately high. Skin, vision and breathing disorders are endemic.
India’s government is blamed for negotiating what the survivors consider low compensation and then ignoring them. Dow, meanwhile, is heavily criticized because it now owns Union Carbide — the American company that had a majority stake in the pesticide plant that leaked the lethal gas.
Ram Pyari, 90, said the tragedy still haunts her.
“Everything was destroyed,” she said Tuesday during a vigil. “And my sons and my daughter-in-law died, my leg was amputated. I have to drag myself. These killers did not heed anything.
“Why are they not brought to court? Why are they not hanged?”
4,000
People killed immediately by the release of methyl isocyanate gas into the air of Bhopal, India, on Dec. 3, 1984
15,000
Death toll from lingering effects of the poison over the next few years
500,000
Total number of people affected by the disaster
