Bhopal’s Haunting Legacy, 1984 Gas Tragedy, Remembered In 15 Pictures
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Sunday dismissed an application for further compensation from Union Carbide for The Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984. The gas leak that killed more than 3,000 people is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.
The Center has asked to reopen the case and Union Carbide’s successors are directed to pay an additional Rs 7,844 crore to the victims of the gas leak. Rejecting the petition, the Constitutional bench of five judges said the settlement could only be dropped on grounds of fraud and that the center did not contest the point.
On December 2, 1984, toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. More than 3,000 people were killed and more than a thousand people affected. Union Carbide President at the time, Warren Anderson, was the lead defendant in the case, but did not appear in court.
Eleven days after the cloud from the Union Carbide factory, the resumption of work was announced, causing an exodus. A total of 200,000 people fled Bhopal (which had 800,000 inhabitants).
Thousands of women and children also said they were seriously injured and permanently disabled and were transported by truck to Hameedia Hospital.
The hospital was flooded with victims of the disaster.
Some children whose parents were contaminated by carcinogenic and mutagenic water supplies were born with the disease. A new generation grew up sick and disabled.
About a thousand victims of the Bhopal Gas disaster protested near Parliament, demanding justice and compensation in 2004.
About 40 tons of methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases leaked from a Union Carbide Corporation pesticide factory. It was the worst chemical disaster in the history of the world.
The gases burn the tissues of the eyes and lungs, enter the bloodstream and damage almost every system in the body.
Featured video of the day
Blockbuster RRR: Why Naatu Naatu’s Oscars Are Special