Thirty years ago, on the night of December 2, 1984, an accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases. The pesticide plant was surrounded by shantytowns, leading to more than 600,000 people being exposed to the deadly gas cloud that night. The gases stayed low to the ground, causing victims throats and eyes to burn, inducing nausea, and many deaths. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 to as many as 16,000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15,000 killed over the years. Toxic material remains, and 30 years later, many of those who were exposed to the gas have given birth to physically and mentally disabled children. For decades, survivors have been fighting to have the site cleaned up, but they say the efforts were slowed when Michigan-based Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001. Human-rights groups say that thousands of tons of hazardous waste remain buried underground, and the government has conceded the area is contaminated. There has, however, been no long-term epidemiological research that conclusively proves that birth defects are directly related to the drinking of the contaminated water.
Bhopal: The World's Worst Industrial Disaster, 30 Years Later
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![Trees frame a rusting building.]()
Read moreTrees frame a rusting building at the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, on November 11, 2014. On the night of December 2, 1984, the factory, owned by the U.S. multinational Union Carbide Corporation, accidentally leaked methyl isocyanate and other highly toxic gases into the air, killing thousands of largely poor Indians in the neighborhoods nearby. #
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![A man stands next to a guard booth and gate. A sign above the booth says "union carbide."]()
Read moreIn December 1984, the entrance to the U.S.-owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, shortly after the release of poisonous gas #
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![A black-and-white photo of two men, each carrying a distressed child.]()
Read moreTwo men carry children blinded by the Union Carbide chemical-gas leak to a hospital in Bhopal on December 5, 1984. #
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![A black-and-white photo of several cows lying on their side, apparently dead, and men walking among them.]()
Read moreThousands of animals perished in the disaster as well, poisoned by the huge gas leak. This photo was taken on December 4, 1984. #
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![A black-and-white photo of several a man and several women and children gathering around two people—one adult and one child—lying on a makeshift stretcher and covered in sheets.]()
Read moreA photo from December 4, 1984, shows relatives surrounding victims of the Bhopal tragedy. #
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![A man walking down the street looks directly at the camera, covering one eye with his hand.]()
Read moreA victim of the Bhopal tragedy walks in the streets on December 4, 1984. In the background is the site of the factory. #
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![Several bodies, covered to the neck with white sheets, are lined up on the ground.]()
Read moreThis photograph taken on December 17, 1984, shows bodies of victims lined up following a poison-gas leak that killed thousands from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. #
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![A man sprays water from a hose attached to a red truck onto tall canvas screens.]()
Read moreWater is hosed onto canvas screens set up around the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on December 18, 1984, as part of measures taken to avoid further leakage of fumes that had earlier caused a huge number of deaths and injuries. #
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![Three people sit with rags over their eyes.]()
Read moreA December 1984 photo shows victims who lost sight after a poison-gas leak from a pesticide plant in Bhopal in front of the U.S. Union Carbide factory (shown in background). #
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![A panel covered in black-and-white photos of dead people's faces. Each person is numbered, and all of the images are of the same size and have the same composition.]()
Read moreA worker cleans dust as he displays a panel of photographs of some of the thousands of people who died in the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster at the forensic department of Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal on June 8, 2010. #
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![A black-and-white portrait of a man and a woman.]()
Read more(1 of 2) A "before" photograph, showing Ram Chandra (left) with his wife Prema in an undated family photograph in Bhopal before the 1984 disaster #
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![The same man from the previous photograph, looking older, sits alone.]()
Read more(2 of 2) Ram Chandra sits alone in Bhopal on November 15, 2014. Chandra said that his wife Prema died as a result of gas poisoning after the 1984 Bhopal disaster. #
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![A black and white portrait of a young man and woman.]()
Read more(1 of 2) A "before" photograph, showing Zubeida (right) with her husband Salim Rehman in an undated family photograph taken before the 1984 disaster #
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![A photograph of the woman from the previous image, looking much older, sitting alone.]()
Read more(2 of 2) Zubeida Bi sits alone in Bhopal on November 11, 2014. Bi said that her husband Rehman died as a result of gas poisoning after the 1984 Bhopal disaster. #
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![A group of children stand in the dark.]()
Read moreChildren play in front of their homes near the Union Carbide factory on November 27, 2009, in Bhopal, India. #
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![A tower, surrounded by trees.]()
Read moreThe flare tower, where highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas was released into the air in the 1984 disaster, at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on November 28, 2014 #
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![A rusty staircase overgrown with plants.]()
Read morePlants grow over a staircase at the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal November 14, 2014. #
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![Rusty pipes among trees.]()
Read moreA network of pipes rust at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal on November 14, 2014. #
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![A close-up of two hangs holding a faded ID card.]()
Read moreFormer maintenance worker, Mohammed Yaqub, poses in his house with his old identity card from the defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal where he once worked, on November 13, 2014. #
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![A reflection of two children in a small body of water, surrounded by rocks.]()
Read moreChildren are reflected in groundwater, believed to be contaminated, near the site of the deserted Union Carbide factory on November 28, 2009 in Bhopal, India. #
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![A young girl with very light blue eyes looks up at the camera.]()
Read moreA girl who suffers from hearing and speech disorders reacts to the camera at a rehabilitation center supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal, for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities, in Bhopal, on November 11, 2014. The rehabilitation center only treats families they believe have been affected by the Union Carbide gas leak 30 years ago. #
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![A man lies on a medical table shirtless, while another man grips his arm and sprays it with something.]()
Read moreSixty-four-year-old Zafar Ahmed receives treatment at a clinic supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal in Bhopal on November 14, 2014. #
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![A bearded man's head sticks out of a wooden box.]()
Read moreBhopal gas disaster survivor Akbar Khan, 70, sits inside a steam box as part of a rehabilitation using traditional Ayurvedic treatment at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal on December 1, 2014. #
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![An older woman wearing a green headscarf looks in the direction of the camera. One of her eyes is closed.]()
Read moreA partially blind gas victim waits for a verdict with other victims in the premises of Bhopal court in Bhopal, India, on June 7, 2010. An Indian court convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of "death by negligence" for their roles in the Bhopal gas tragedy that left thousands of people dead more than a quarter century previously, in the world's worst industrial disaster. #
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![A boy looks out a window.]()
Read moreA boy who was born with a mental disability looks out of a window at a rehabilitation center supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities in Bhopal on November 11, 2014. #
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![A boy crawls across a cement floor.]()
Read moreFifteen-year-old Sachin Kumar crawls on his hands and knees through his home in a slum near the site of the deserted Union Carbide factory on November 30, 2009, in Bhopal, India. Sachin lives with his parents Suresh and Sangita; his three sisters, Jyoti, Arti, and Punam; and his brother Ravi, in a slum where a number of people affected by either water contamination or poison contamination have been relocated. Sachin was born with a birth defect rendering his legs practically useless. He had been receiving physical-therapy treatment and education from the Chingari Trust Rehabilitation Center for victims of the 1984 gas tragedy, however his health has taken a turn for the worse and his legs, now covered with open sores, restrict him from traveling to the major road where the Chingari Trust bus can pick him up for daily treatment. The oldest of four, Sachin spends his days playing board games with his friends and a rare game of cricket, which he sees as the fulfillment of his dreams of becoming a professional cricket player. #
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![Several people are gathered at a protest. An effigy is burning, and signs read "Extradite Union Carbide" and "Killer Carbide is now Dow Chemical."]()
Read moreBhopal Gas disaster survivors shout slogans as they burn an effigy during a protest rally in Bhopal on December 2, 2014. #
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![A man stands beneath machinery.]()
Read moreA security guard stands as sun rays pass through the defunct machinery at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal on December 1, 2009. #
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