By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Managing Editor, Impunity Watch

NEW DELHI, India – During the middle of the night on December 2-3 1984 large quantities of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate was accidentally released from a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant located in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The ploom of gas spread over the city as About 30 metric tons of methyl isocyanate) escaped into the atmosphere in a span of about 45 to 60 minutes. Leaks had occurred in the plant before and the poor condition of the plant was known by its operators were aware that many of the plant’s safety systems were not working and its operation valves were in poor condition. The disaster would claim more than 25,000 lives and leave more than 40,000 people permanently disabled making the event the worst industrial disaster in world history. After the disaster the Union Carbide company, whose parent company is Huston based Down Chemical Company, abandoned the planed without cleaning any of the toxic waste it left behind. Today illnesses related to acute toxic poisoning are still reported in local hospitals.

On the wake of the thirtieth anniversary of the Bhopal industrial disaster Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty called on the government of Narendra Modi led  should raise issues pertaining to the Bhopal Gas tragedy with United States President Barack Obama during the President’s visit to India in January next year. “It is time to give victims and survivors the compensation they deserve. It is time to clean up the site and toxic wastes. And it is time to ensure justice and bring Dow Chemicals and Carbide to book,” he said.

A new film staring Indian American actor Kal Penn and directed by Ravi Kumar address the Bhopal disaster, exploring the events that led to the deadly release of toxic gas in 1984. The film “Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain,” opened in New York City last follows the story of Dilip, a former rickshaw driver who gets a job at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal in the early 1980s. Dilip, played by Kal Penn, and his co-workers become increasingly concerned by the lack of concern for safety around them.

“The Bhopal tragedy is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, period,” Penn said. “There was such a multitude of other factors at play: corruption within government, lax safety standards, lack of enforcement or oversight, intimidation, the need for jobs, and of course corporate legal loopholes.”

The film also depicts Warren Anderson, the American CEO of Union Carbide who was arrested as he headed to India after the accident, although he was eventually allowed to leave the country without facing a trial. Said his team reached out to Anderson while writing the script to get his side of the story, but were unable to speak to him. “F or three decades, Union Carbide has used USA as a safe haven from criminal charges to dodge culpable homicide. The Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate has called Union Carbide six times but because of their consistent no show, has called it an ‘absconder’,” Shetty said.

“We know that the safety standard in the West Virginia plant of Union Carbide was much higher than Bhopal. It is time to right these wrongs,” Shetty said. “On behalf of Amnesty International, I am here to say the victims and survivors of the worst industrial disaster of our times can’t be asked to wait any longer. 30 years ago about 20,000 people died, up to half a million affected. They can’t wait any longer,” he said.

After the disaster Dow Chemical and Union Carbide simply abandoned Bhopal and even worked to create an illusion that time has healed Bhopal’s wounds. Today the rusting pipelines and burst gas tanks remain at the site tangled with lush green shoots. Fishermen fish the toxic waters of the plant’s abandoned evaporation ponds, families graze their goats on long grass and children play in the shadow of the chemical plant where a fine coating of chemical powder from the chemical leak can still be seen. No real cleanup has occurred, and despite the continued exposure of local families to chemical poisoning, no one has been brought to justice for the worst industrial disaster in world history.

For more information please see:

Amnesty International – Thirty Years On From Bhopal Disaster: Still Fighting For Justice – 2 December 2014

Newsweek – 30 Years On, the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster Continues To Blight Bhopal – 2 December 2014

International Business Times – Bhopal Disaster 30th Anniversary: Facts about the World’s Worst Industrial Tragedy – 1 December 2014

NBC News – Kal Penn’s New Film Dives into Bhopal Disaster, 30 Years Later – 7 November 2014