Victims of Bhopal gas tragedy demand cleanup
Hundreds of people marched through Bhopal with torches before dawn Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster and demand the cleanup of toxic chemicals they say still contaminate the Indian city's soil and water.
Early on Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide spewed about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the city's air, quickly killing about 4,000 people. The lingering effects of the poison raised the death toll to about 15,000 over the next few years, according to government estimates.
Local activists insist the real numbers are almost twice that, and say the company and government have failed to clean up toxic chemicals at the plant, which closed after the accident.
Image: A spider's web is seen spun on defunct machinery at the Union Carbide pesticide plant, 25 years after 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from this same plant, in Bhopal.
Natural disasters of the decade
blog comments powered by Disqus