Disaster haunts Bhopal gas leak survivors 30 years later

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 claimed thousands of lives took to the streets Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the disaster, chanting slogans and carrying placards 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 Corp. leaked about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air in Bhopal, quickly 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 still 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 anniversary.

The accident took place when water entered the sealed tank containing the highly reactive methyl isocyanate. Union Carbide, an American chemical company, has said it 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 Co. 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 emailed statement Wednesday, Union Carbide said 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 Union Carbide and the 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 thousands of children born to parents directly 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.

The survivors have blamed both their own government and Dow for their suffering. India’s government is blamed for negotiating what the survivors consider low compensation and then ignoring them.

In the poor neighborhoods behind the Union Carbide plant, where the worst of the tragedy unfolded, survivors and their relatives and supporters burned effigies of the late Warren Anderson, who headed Union Carbide at the time of the leak, and a banner emblazoned with the logo of Dow Chemical Co.