Revisiting the greatest man–made catastrophe in the history of Indian democracy. A journey through the horrible aftermath in which the helpless victims and their descendants are carrying the unending curse of this man-made disaster. What lies ahead for the affected victims of Bhopal? A detailed analysis.

Methyl Isocyanate, the lethal gas, leaked from the Union Carbide Plant of Bhopal on a cold December night forty years ago, had remained an ever - alive sore on this huge subcontinent and has been questioning the significance and legitimacy of Indian judicial system. Approximately 3700 people had died within days, and over half a million were poisonously affected with permanent physical disabilities. Against the actual amount of monetary compensation that the government of India had demanded from Union Carbide, the company had paid a much less amount of $470 million. Although none of the company's high ranking officials was arrested or charged with any criminal case, only 4 lower ranking officials were jailed in 2010 for just two years, following which they were granted immediate bail. This had created a nationwide uproar. The Supreme Court had cancelled the government's challenge to the verdict. The sessions court is still hearing the petitions. But within this 40-year timeframe, two generations had spent their lives in the darkness of the corporate betrayal and the related bullying, the curse of poisonous infections and death's beckoning. Although there was no doubt about Dow Chemicals, the mother company of Union Carbide's sheer negligence to compensate even to the least amount, the irreparable losses of the victims, the government of India was also responsible to a great extent who had failed to assure justice for it's citizens. Considering this scenario to those of other countries would only reveal startling differences. Within four weeks of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the company's Director and other two senior executives had been incarcerated for 10 years. Five years after the horrible oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the U. S. Justice Department had secured a record $20.8 billion compensation from BP Deepwater Horizon, the responsible company for that oil leak. The oil leak destroyed the ocean's ecosystem to a great extent and destroyed the area's fishing industry and tourism activities.

The successive Indian governments' disabilities to secure proper justice for the affected citizens of Bhopal left an indelible mark on the entire nation. This failure had brought the credibility of the Indian judicial system in front of a big question mark every time it faced big corporate houses with unending financial power. More importantly, this failure had created a collective fear among the Indian masses that the law and order system would not be powerful enough to protect them if something like this happened again.

40 years on, the victim's fight continues...

Sitara Bee, the bidi roller from old Bhopal's Teelajamalpura, had lost her husband and daughter in illnesses caused by the poisonous gas leak in 1984. On the night of 2 - 3 December, 2500 innocent and helpless people had died instantly from the poisonous Methyl Isocyanate gas, leaked inside a pesticide facility of the multinational Union Carbide. Thousands and thousands of people like Sitara Bee's husband and daughter followed the path of slow and painful deaths from the related infections as the aftershock of the gas leak continued. The victims' demand for higher compensation continued for the next 40 years. In between, the company's ownership had changed and at present is owned by another multinational Dow Incorporated. According to the calculation of the Indian Council For Medical Research (ICMR), until 1997, the total number of people who died in the accident was 15342. An RTI reply stated, only 10797 people had died in Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre for Disaster Victims between 2000 and 2024. Sitara and six of her children, after surviving the accident, suffered from poor eyesight and severe pains for all these years. In 1991 - '92 each one of them had received only 25000 Rs. which was only a small portion of what they had to spend for their treatments and the amount of money they couldn't earn by working because of these ailments. "For a year after the disaster, we ran from pillar to post to save our 10-year-old daughter, who had severe aches. Finally, she had an operation in Hamidia (a Madhya Pradesh government hospital), where a 2.5 kg tumour was taken out of her intestine. The stitches did not heal. A tube was put in her stomach to pass stool. We moved her to a private hospital. She suffered for two and a half months and died," Sitara Bee said. Afterwards, Sitara's husband, Mohammad Anwar, started having breathing problems and gradually had to stop working and couldn't even get out of their home. He passed away in 2007. Their children became daily labourers. One son died of alcohol consumption. These people's only support was Abdul Jabbar, another victim who started a vocational training centre to improve the pathetic condition of the victims and help them find a better life. But the man himself had passed away in penury in 2019. Now, Sitara's only support was her daughter Tanzeera, who was born after the disaster. She learnt computer applications from the training centre of Abdul Jabbar. "No government fulfilled it's promises to us. We deserve more compensation and better medical facilities," Sitara said.

A handful of activists were still fighting their lone battle in Bhopal district court, Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court, filing new pleas. N. D. Jayaprakash, the co - co-convener of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayak Samiti, has been fighting the cases for the victims in the Bhopal district court and the High Court. "We hope that someday there will be a judge who is concerned about the victims and responds positively to them," he said. A Delhi science forum team had visited the epicenter three days after the accident. Jayaprakash was a member of that team. He has been involved in the plight of the victims since then. According to him, a settlement was finalized in the Supreme Court in 1989 that $470 million (almost Rs. 715 crore) would be paid as compensation, against which all the criminal charges against Union Carbide would be waived. But the amount of compensation was calculated based on this supposition that 3000 persons had died and 1.02 lakh got injured. But the victims appealed to the court saying these calculations were arbitrary and the claims of the 5.5 lakh victims were not considered by the judiciary of Bhopal. In 1991 the apex court started the criminal trial all over again but did not increase the amount of compensation money. From 1992 to 2004, more than 5.74 lakh people's claims had been settled. After many cases and further assistance from the Centre, in 2010, each family of the dead had received Rs.10 lakh, and the family of the injured had received Rs. 30,000. Although in 2004 the apex court had increased the compensation two times, Sitara's family had never received the second amount of Rs. 25000. As the actual number of the victims was five times more than the calculated number of 1989, the victims had demanded for the compensation amount calculated according to that actual number. Unfortunately, the apex court rejected that appeal in 2022. "How did the court decide that these were only temporary injuries that needed only Rs. 25000? How can temporary injuries exist for 40 years? Some 6000 victims visit hospitals for treatment every day. They can't brush us away," Jayaprakash said. Four groups of victims had moved the Supreme Court demanding compensation of Rs.5 lakh for victims who had developed cancer and serious kidney ailments. One petitioner, Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group of Information and Action had also organised events to mark the disaster, "It is incredible that even after 40 years some 200 people came to hear (former Orissa High Court Chief Justice) Justice S. Muralidhar (whose pro bono work as a lawyer) in 2004 won the pro rata (doubling) of compensation. Since November 2022, we have had a poster exhibition in front of the factory on how many people died or were injured, the lessons learnt and other industrial disasters. We are also honouring those who fought for justice, the first responders, the survivors and we also remember the rogues responsible," she said. The persons, who responded to the horrible disaster in the very beginning were participating in these events. Among them were one doctor who did all those autopsies, the truck driver who disposed of the bodies and the gravedigger. "Forty years is a long time. Now we demand our well deserved compensation. For fifty years the poisonous water and air contaminated by the chemical wastes of Union Carbide are constantly entering into our body - we want an end to this." In these demands from 2 December 2024, a road rally, street corners and exhibitions had taken place in Bhopal. To mark the forty years of this catastrophe, a meeting was organised by the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangathan at the feet of the gas victims’ martyrs’ statue in J. P. Nagar. "When will we receive our deserved compensation ?" was the call of the hour. A campaign had been organised to send post cards to the Prime Minister seeking justice. "We have a rally planned on December 2, and an effigy burning on December 3..... This is an ongoing disaster for so many. There is still hope of better medical care with the petition in the High Court. Last year, Dow appeared for the first time in the Bhopal district court," told Dhingra. In 1994, the Supreme Court ordered the company to sell shares in order to generate funds for a 500-bed hospital for the victims. In 2000, the 350-bed BMHRC was established. The rest of the fund, Rs. 435 crores, which according to Jayaprakash had become almost Rs.1200 crore with interest. "The BMHRC was the best hospital in the central India when it was started.... But at this point many doctors there have left for the private sector. This leftover money can be used to pay better salaries," according to Jayaprakash. Since 2012, a medical case was pending that demanded better medical care and computerisation of all the medical records that would determine the ultimate number of the victims that would make it easier for the patients to get treatment, anywhere they went. Jayaprakash has been cooperating with CBI in a case filed against the eight Union Carbide officials by Bhopal's Chief Judicial Magistrate. Five of them had already passed away. "Whenever a judge finishes hearing, the judge is transferred, and the proceedings start all over again," Jayaprakash said. The eighth judge started a fresh hearing of the case from November, 2024.

After all this time, what is that putrid smell on the walls of the factory?

40 years ago, the witness to the incidents of the night of 2-3 December, the iron gate with it's cracking sound awakens the old memories. The huge walled factory of Union Carbide at Arifnagar has given another identity to Bhopal City in front of the world. The air of the factory compound and the nearby ghetto had been filled with the poisonous smell of the leaked chemical. Coming in contact with that, the lives of almost 5 lakh people were wasted mercilessly. According to the counting beside the government count, the number of deaths had reached to 8000 in the first week of the chemical disaster. According to the factory authority's calculation, on the night of the disaster, the death toll had risen to a little more than 3000. After that 1984 disaster, the factory's gate was closed forever. After 40 years of that shameless disaster, permission is still needed to open the gate of the factory. But who is the permission giving authority, nobody in the locality has any idea about. Or nobody wants to give that information. Rumour has it that passing a few rupee notes opens the gate automatically and paves the way for surreptitious rounds of the factory. Still the age-old complaint is doing the rounds in the locality that from the outset, enamoured by illegal profit, the Union Carbide had flouted the safety and security rules. The entire factory area is covered in hedges and bushes today. Amid that stand the rusty skeletons of the machinery here and there. Beside the path of the factory, big iron structures stand one after another as the witnesses to the once busy factory compound. On the dangerous stained stairway leading to the top of the giant reactor tank, nobody had put his feet for long. The fateful tank of methyl Isocyanate (MIC) of that night can be seen today. Tumbled at one side, that tank still has a portion of the regulator fixed on it. On this very spot, one can smell a special odour. After entering the factory, a caustic smell comes to the senses. It is a known fact that still today, at some unknown moments the gas leaks. It is advisable not to stay inside the factory for long. At the gate of the factory stands the siren tower, at the top of which the light and mike used to spread danger siren or warning. It is said that during the beginning days of the factory, every time an accident or emergency situation occurred, the siren would start blowing. The surrounding people began suspecting the factory. Then the authority had stopped the siren forever. Since then the people in the area could never know when an accident happened inside the factory.

The Inception

In 1969, this facility of Union Carbide India Limited started manufacturing batteries and pesticides. Technology was dependent on manpower. From the beginning, there were controversies surrounding the activities of the factory. In 1976, the two local organisations had complained about gas leaking from the factory. In 1981, while repairing a pipe, a labourer, Ashraf Khan, was burnt to death by the poisonous Fausjen gas. Two labourers were also seriously injured. Within January and October of 1982, two successive accidents took place in which 25 labourers fell ill from Fausjen gas. Again in October, at the time of preventing a MIC leak, three workers and their supervisor, along with more than a hundred residents, were seriously injured. These series of leaks were the premonitions of the ultimate danger that was about to come.

In 1984, before the disaster, the factory authority, out of their callousness, was throwing chemical wastes in the water body outside the plant and the harmful wastes in the 32-acre solar pond inside the factory, built in 1977. Still today, every rainy season these water bodies get flooded and contaminate the surrounding. For the past forty years, coming under it's influence, the area's underground water and surroundings have become contaminated. Every time someone tries to go near the solar pond, the security guard shouts, "Back off, do you want to die ?" According to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research physicist Soumitra Banerjee, "since the smell is still in the air, it means some chemical substance is still flowing in the air. What is the origin of this? We need to know. That's why environmental scientists should go there and inspect the area carefully. Is there any container underground from where the smell comes? Or are there other sources? For bigger welfare, steps need to be taken by the government." Calcutta University's environmental scientist and professor, Pritha Bhattacharjee, says this methyl Isocyanate is an extremely poisonous carcinogenic gas. According to the scientific analysis, after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the poisonous gas is still in the air of the locality. This chemical, with the passing of time, has transformed into another compound. Heat, water, sunlight, enzymes and microbes initiate this transformation. Pritha says, "Some area's heat, the number and variety of microbes, the differences in PH determine how fast the MIC will decompose. The decomposed compound, in chemical reaction with water and oxygen, creates another substance. To a great extent, these substances stay on the ground and the rest of these release gas from underground. Constant chemical reactions continue for two to three generations. To know the present condition of that locality in detail, thorough examination on that spot is needed." This means still now danger is looming large on Arifnagar and it's surroundings. Cattle are grazing on the vast field. The children are playing cricket. Within the age of 6-12, most of them know about the gas leak disaster. It still breaths heavily on the entire area. The laconic words of MD. Kabir resonates that. An 11-year-old boy carrying a cricket bat comes near and says, on Sunday morning, the police captured a person who came to take a look at the disaster sights. For the past 40 years, the victims of this disaster have inhabited this poisonous atmosphere with empty hands.

The lives that never saw the light of the day!

In Bhopal's Hamidia Hospital, the doctor, Dibyokishore Satpathy sheds his tears after all these years. He was the forensic doctor of the Hamidia Hospital in those days of the gas leak. He still remembers the entire series of incidents at 75 years of age. At present, he is the dean of students' welfare at L. N. Medical College. The news came out that people were dying, coming under the influence of a poisonous gas. After more than 24 hours of the catastrophe, it came to the knowledge that the gas was methyl Isocyanate (MIC). But still, today, Dr. Satpathy doesn't accept the fact that on that night, only MIC got leaked. In the morning of 3 December, 1984, at the call of his department's director, Hiresh Chandra, the 35-year-old Dr. Satpathy had arrived at the Hamidia Hospital. Negotiating through the lines of dead bodies and moribund people, Satpathy had arrived at his department. Taking the other three doctors with him, he started post-mortem. In the next 24 hours, that four doctors' team had carried out the post mortem of 876, died from the poisonous gas. To cope with the increasing heap of dead bodies, the post-mortem went on for the next 72 hours. After that, the four doctors fell ill. Since then, the four doctors became permanently affected by asthma and are still today continuously under treatment. A witness to this kind of tragedy, Dr. Satpathy, firmly believes the chemical reactions of MIC and other gases turned the atmosphere of the factory and its surroundings into a valley of death. He still regrets that till today, the true character of those leaked gases has not been researched. Dr. Satpathy further says, all the gases were not equally poisonous. A particular gas had its effect up to 100 metres, another gas had it's effect up to 500 metres, and some other gas had it's effect up to 1 kilometre. Which particular gas was crossing how much distance, based on that parameter it could have been determined, which gas would affect which part of the body and how that could have been prevented. Dr. Satpathy laments, "I had even told about the ways to determine these parameters, but nobody paid attention. After surrounding off a particular area, this operation could have been carried out. After taking the requisite safety measures, mixing the required amount of water with two to three kilograms of MIC would have released the gases that could have been collected. After observing that gas, it would have become clear what kind of chemical reaction was taking place and how that was going to affect the human body. Then the treatment could have been administered accordingly." Instead, the helpless doctors facing that kind of an unknown situation for the first time had started treating the patients according to the symptoms on their bodies. After that disaster, the character of the gas came to our knowledge. "Identifying MIC had made it clear that sufficient amount of cyanite had entered and still were entering the human body. Then, administering sodium thiosulphate in the patients' bodies became mandatory on the government's part. Because sodium thiosulphate, after entering the body, gets mixed up with cyanite and becomes the harmless thiocyanite that comes out of the body with urine. It is proven in the experiment. But owing to an unknown reason, the administration sent a letter after three days that mentioned their decision had been changed. Sodium thiosulphate was no longer mandatory then. So many needy patients didn't get that. Else more lives could have been saved," lamented Dr. Satpathy. The administrative bodies' and research organisations' apathy also makes him think. Those organisations had collected tissues and blood samples from the patients and dead bodies and stored those for the next 20 years. New Delhi's ICMR, Gujarat's Forensic Science Lab, Kanpur Toxicology Centre, Medico Legal Institute, Bhopal had researched those tissues and documented the resulting information. For the further preservation of those tissues and blood samples, the doctor had sent written appeals to the centre and state administrations. But neither the government nor the research organisations showed any interest. On the other hand, for an entire day the power cut in the Hamidia Hospital had destroyed 50 per cent of the collected tissues. The hospital administration was compelled to throw those out. Dr. Satpathy complained, the false claims of Union Carbide had destroyed the lives of many latter generations. The company administration claimed that the chemical reactions from the manufacturing unit inside their factory would not hurt the embryo of a pregnant woman. In reality, many pregnant women carrying children had died from that reaction. And those women and their children, who had survived the disaster, carried the brunt of those poisons for their whole lives. The children born afterwards carried those poisonous effects from inside their mothers' wombs. Today's Bhopal is still carrying those pains and poisons. Does anybody have any answer to that?

Foreign grants for the victims

From the first day of 2024, the voluntary organisation, fighting for the plight of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims for 28 years, had started a sit-in. Their demand was that as soon as possible, the registration of the victims under the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) would have to be completed by the Indian government. On the third day of the sit-in, the Home Ministry granted the FCRA registration. Now there will be no impediments in the arrival of the foreign grants for the victims. In 2019 the Home Ministry had cancelled the FCRA registration of the voluntary organisation. Since then the arrival of foreign grants had stopped. Owing to the scarcity of funds, the sick organisation was closed on 1 January of 2024. The members of the Union Carbide Poison Victims' Healthcare Rights Front had started a sit-in for an unending period from that day in Bhopal. In 1995, Sambhavna Trust was established for the physical assistance and academic progress of the victims. The Sambhavna Clinic of that trust works to provide all kinds of medical attentions, free medicines to the victims and run continuous awareness programs for them. Forty-five countries used to bear the expenses of the organisation's employees' salaries and the medical expenses of the victims. The advisor of the trust, Satinath Sarangi, says, "Many of the 52 employees of the clinic are from the gas victim families. Countless families had become jobless since the clinic closed. To maintain it's political neutrality, the trust doesn't accept any financial help from the Indian government. So, the foreign grants were essential. After the government allowed the registration all over again, a huge damage could be prevented."

Two cases of self-immolations surrounding the chemical wastes

On 1 January 2025, the cleaning of all the chemical waste, stacked for 40 years inside the Union Carbide factory, was started. But this time, a huge upheaval began in Madhya Pradesh's Pithampur surrounding the burning of those poisonous wastes. In this town of Dhar district, the administration had decided to burn those 337 tonnes of dangerous chemical wastes. The preparation had also been completed. But a section of the local residents had started protesting against this action. Their claim was that the poisonous smoke and the flying ashes of this huge fire would cause dangerous physical harm to the residents of Pithampur. Addressing this issue the protesting residents had called for a closure in the city on 3 January. Since morning of that day the situation became tensed surrounding the bandh. Protesting the burning of those poisonous chemical wastes in their city, two above-forty men had poured inflammable liquids over them and tried to immolate themselves. They were rescued and admitted to a hospital. According to the Madhya Pradesh administration, the required safe scientific procedure through which those chemical wastes should be burnt was only possible in that factory of Pithampur. For this purpose special wooden structures had also been established in that factory. Several rules and regulations are to be followed in order to scientifically burn those chemical wastes. According to the calculation, if 90 kg of waste can be burnt every day, then the entire operation will end in 150 days. But the residents questioned why their city was selected for this operation? They have also raised the demand to return those wastes back to Bhopal.

On 3 January morning while the residents of Pithampur were seated on a road to fulfill their bandh program, police beat them up. The situation became tense. The social worker, Sandip Raghuvanshi, said the people of the city were fuming with anger at these actions. But the state administration said the people had no grudge regarding this matter. Sandip had also warned, unless and until the twelve containers carrying those wastes were being returned to Bhopal, their lockout programme would continue. The district magistrate of Dhar, Priyank Mishra, had started initiatives to pacify the situation. On 3 January he told at the press meeting, "Because of the protest and demonstration activities, today the law and order situation of the area had deteriorated. Police and the administration are trying to bring everything under control. No decision will be taken without discussing it with the locals. Following the orders of the Supreme Court and High Court, completely scientifically, the burning of the wastes will be carried out. The question of keeping anybody in the dark regarding this entire procedure is out of question." The police Super of Dhar had issued the same statement, "from the very beginning the government of Madhya Pradesh has been saying that without the permission of the people of Pithampur, those chemical wastes won't be burnt. Yesterday we also had a meeting regarding this. The locals need not be tensed with this matter. Nobody should take the law into his own hands. The government will give first preference to the happiness, peace and safety of people."

Nobody thought that we were humans too...

"In Bhopal gas tragedy who were the ordinary victims? Those affected had died either on that day or had lived like dead persons," Said Jahar Ahmed.

The affected Jahar and his wife had given birth to four children afterwards and lost all of them. A resident of the nearby areas of Bhopal's Rusulli masjid, Jahar's tears had dried out a long time ago by the incurable sore left by the disaster. A man with a typical Bhopal temperament, Jahar had lost his wife one year ago. On the night of the disaster, Jahar was living with his wife, three daughters and a son at the Kazi Camp area. His wife was six months pregnant at that time. Eight months after its birth, the child died. The next three children died six months, 25 days and two hours after their birth. On the night of 2-3 December, after hearing the anxious cries of the people in his locality, Jahar had come out. His next feeling was as if someone had sprayed chili powder in the air. He started having burning sensations in his eyes and breathing trouble. Since then, diabetes, high blood pressure, and eyesight problems have been the lifelong ailments of Jahar, his wife and their four children.

The tears of Kalabai Viswakarma of J. P. Nagar had not dried out even after 40 years. That night of 2-3 December 1984 had taken away her 3-year-old child Satyanarayan, whose last wish was, "Mummy, dudh pina hai." While running with her son, holding him tight to her bosom, Kalabai had realised that her son's heartbeat had stopped forever. She remembered a car collecting the dead and half - dead people, which had stopped in front of her. When she regained consciousness, she found herself on a bed in Hamidia Hospital. She couldn't see her son's face for the last time. Taking a brief pause, the old frail lady washed her eyes with an end of her saree. "I wasn't supposed to survive. Because of the timely rescue on that night, I am sitting in front of you today." Then, only twenty years of age, she was sleeping with the 5-year-old Jagdish and the 3-year-old Satyanarayan in their house. Around 2 pm on that night, a tremendous cough and burning sensation in their eyes had begun suddenly. At that moment siren blew from the opposite side factory of the Union Carbide. Sensing danger, Kalabai's husband, Badri Prasad Sharma, ran with the eldest son towards Vishram Ghat (the resting place). The poisonous gas had already covered the entire area like the white fog of Winter. In that situation, not being able to trace her husband, Kalabai got disconnected and ended up in Chhola just in the opposite direction. Answering her thirsty son's request, she gave him an armful of water. But that little amount of water had her son's abdomen bloating. The child started breathing heavily.

After 1984, Kalabai gave birth to six more daughters. The youngest of them is 26 now. That young lady also suffers from breathing problems. The eldest son, Jagdish, suffers from asthma the whole year long. Kidney stone, skin disease and body ache are his permanent company. The eldest daughter of Jagdish, Nandini, had also developed kidney stones. Spinal pain, skin disease and breathing problems are also giving her trouble.

The old resident of J. P. Nagar, Nathuram Soni hadn't lost anybody on that night. But one daughter of that 81-year-old man had committed suicide eight years after that disaster. The father to four daughters and one son, Nathuram says, "The most meritorious was that daughter. But since that incident, she remained ill. I couldn't afford her treatment. Unable to bear the physical agony, along with the accompanying mental depression, she finished her life." After the gas leak, a son was born to Nathuram with shortness of eyesight from birth. The conditions didn't improve even after two successive surgeries. Nathuram, along with his wife and other children, suffers from high blood pressure, heart ailments and diabetes. Once he used to sell fries at the Bhopal rail station. He had lost the physical ability to continue that work many years ago. Nathuram questions the significance of the Rs.25000 compensation from the government: "What purpose will possibly be served with this money? For a few years after the incident, we used to receive two hundred rupees pension per month. The cost of our treatment is sky-high. In spite of being the gas victims' card holder, we have to pay for the medical tests. Why do we have to persevere all these inhuman acts? What were our faults ?" asks Nathuram. "In forty years great amount of waters have flown in Ganga. Many governments have changed. But nobody has punished those owners! Nobody has thought that we are human beings. Else, are they throwing at us all those as alms ?" asks the old man Sevak Prasad on behalf of all the victims.

The gas tragedy victims’ helpless cry in the wilderness of this huge democracy slowly got lost in diplomatic oblivion.

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