Bhopal + 30

On the 30^th anniversary of the Bhopal explosion, hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the Indian factory which was the scene of the world’s deadliest industrial disaster. They burned effigies of the plant’s owners, held up banners, and shouted ‘We want justice!’

In the early hours of the morning, 30 years ago today, about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by U.S. multinational Union Carbide and was carried by the wind into the surrounding slums.

The government’s official total of deaths is 5,295, but activists say the true figure is about 25,000 and that many people still suffer from cancer, blindness, respiratory problems and immune and neurological disorders, and that they have received inadequate compensation. They also complain that toxic waste around the plant is still contaminating water supplies for 50,000 people.

Union Carbide’s present owners, Dow Chemical has denied liability, saying it bought Union Carbide a decade after the firm settled its liabilities to the Indian government by paying $470 million. (see also my blogs of March 17, 2010 and Dec 3, 2012.) For more, see A Disastrous History of the World.

Bhopal + 28 - protests and a museum

On the 28^th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, victims and their supporters held rallies to complain that they have still not been adequately compensated.    A march on the residence of a leading politician to deliver a letter was halted by police.

Activists complain that still no one has been properly called to account for the disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from Union Carbide’s plant, killing perhaps 3,800 people in the immediate aftermath and causing illness and death to many thousands more in the years that followed.

Meanwhile the ‘Remember Bhopal Trust’ is setting up a mobile museum made up of articles donated by the families of victims, including materials used in protests over the last 28 years.  From December 2013, it will tour India on a bus.

The curator says they have refused any government funding, arguing the government ‘has no moral authority to set up the museum as they were themselves a party to the gas disaster.'  (See also my blogs of Aug 1, 2009; June 7, and July 13, 2010.)

Bhopal convictions

More than 25 years after the Bhopal disaster, eight people have been convicted for causing “death by negligence”. They include former senior officials of the Union Carbide company which owned the plant, including Keshub Mahindra, who was chairman of its Indian arm. The crime carries a maximum prison sentence of two years.

Campaigners have complained that the verdict is too little, too late, and have said it means the disaster has been treated “like a traffic accident.” Warren Anderson, Union Carbide’s chairman at the time of the accident, still notionally faces charges, and is officially regarded by the Indian courts as an “absconder.”

Forty tons of highly poisonous gas escaped from the plant. Union Carbide admitted that about 3,800 people died in the immediate aftermath. Campaigners claim that up to 20,000 more have perished since from the effects of the gas, with another 120,000 still suffering ill effects.

This would make it the deadliest industrial accident in history, though some environmentalists claim that Chernobyl may eventually outstrip it with deaths from cancer caused by its radiation eventually reaching 200,000. For more details, see A Disastrous History of the World. (See also my blogs of 1st Aug 2009 and 17th March 2010)