Featured Image Credit: Shuriah Niazi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Topics: News, World News, Court, Health
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, World News, Court, Health
Chilling photos show the remains of a factory at the center of the worst industrial disaster in history.
This year will mark 40 years since the Bhopal Disaster, in which a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide leaked toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment.
In 1984 the plant in Bhopal, the capital of central Indian state Madhya Pradesh, leaked more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas into the atmosphere which was blown southeast over Bhopal.
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According to figures from the Indian government, around 3,500 people died within days of the leak.
Government figures also showed that more than 15,000 people died in connection with the catastrophe in the following years.
It was reported that more than half a million people were exposed to the gas and several studies have also shown increased rates of premature death among them.
Prior to the leak the plant had been used to manufacture pesticides.
The incident occurred while the plant was being dismantled, with water entering a tank filled with chemicals causing pressure to build and leading to the catastrophic gas leak.
Investigations into the disaster established that the leak had been caused due to substandard operating and safety procedures.
Failsafe measures at the site did not function properly, including a refrigeration unit and a gas flare which would have burnt off the gas as it escaped.
Even as the 40th anniversary of the catastrophe looms children are being born whose health has been directly impacted.
This includes increased rates of children being born with conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, as well as severe learning difficulties and autism.
Rashida Bee and Champadevi Shukla founded The Chingari Trust and Rehabilitation Center to support children affected by the disaster.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2019, Rashida said: “The situation is getting worse, not better. We are seeing more and more second and third generation children being born with such disabilities and coming here. Bhopal’s tragedy has not stopped.”
In the wake of the leak many movements and advocacy groups have consistently called for justice over the leak.
This included the Supreme Court of India ordering Union Carbide to pay $470 million to settle all claims from the tragedy.
Advocacy groups have also for the extradition of Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India to face trial over the disaster. However, the US declined the extradition request.
Classified emails published in the Wikileaks scandal indicated that President Obama's government was opposed to India's 2010 request to reopen the compensation settlement for victims.