Bhopal disaster

On 3 December 1984, over 500,000 people in the vicinity of the <a href="/facts/Union_Carbide_India_Limited/Ds0vB7Xa">Union Carbide India Limited</a> pesticide plant in <a href="/facts/Bhopal/es3U7wW8">Bhopal</a>, <a href="/facts/Madhya_Pradesh/h8GnUBv6">Madhya Pradesh</a>, <a href="/facts/India/1kKHcnxM">India</a> were exposed to the highly <a href="/facts/Toxicity/qa96rs60">toxic</a> gas <a href="/facts/Methyl_isocyanate/N9hgqxLe">methyl isocyanate</a>, in what is considered the <a href="/facts/List_of_accidents_and_disasters_by_death_toll/RztwrHFg">world's worst industrial disaster</a>. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Estimates vary on the death toll, with the official number of immediate deaths being 2,259. Others estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases. In 2008, the <a href="/facts/Government_of_Madhya_Pradesh/ufQP7gDM">Government of Madhya Pradesh</a> paid compensation to the family members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims.
The owner of the factory, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), was majority-owned by the <a href="/facts/Union_Carbide_Corporation/kCE5YHal">Union Carbide Corporation</a> (UCC) of the United States, with Indian government-controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent <a href="/facts/Stakeholder_(corporate)/yN9L44ac">stake</a>. In 1989, UCC paid $470 million (equivalent to $1.01 billion in 2023) to settle litigation stemming from the disaster. In 1994, UCC sold its stake in UCIL to <a href="/facts/Eveready_Industries_India/sJnKIAEv">Eveready Industries India Limited</a> (EIIL), which subsequently merged with <a href="/facts/McLeod_Russel/Gsdcl4on">McLeod Russel (India) Ltd</a>. Eveready ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it terminated its 99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state government of Madhya Pradesh. <a href="/facts/Dow_Chemical_Company/tuTEe6tQ">Dow Chemical Company</a> purchased UCC in 2001, seventeen years after the disaster.
<a href="/facts/Civil_law_(common_law)/7apK9Gaa">Civil</a> and <a href="/facts/Criminal_law/XXfgv9as">criminal cases</a> filed in the United States against UCC and <a href="/facts/Warren_Anderson_(American_businessman)/o4MM0gNf">Warren Anderson</a>, chief executive officer of the UCC at the time of the disaster, were dismissed and redirected to Indian courts on multiple occasions between 1986 and 2012, as the US courts focused on UCIL being a standalone entity of India. Civil and criminal cases were also filed in the <a href="/facts/District_courts_of_India/QEyjyjL0">District Court</a> of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL, and Anderson. In June 2010, seven Indian nationals who were UCIL employees in 1984, including the former UCIL chairman <a href="/facts/Keshub_Mahindra/3MzlEcMH">Keshub Mahindra</a>, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by <a href="/facts/Law_of_India/Qf466GsM">Indian law</a>. All were released on bail shortly after the verdict. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died before the judgement was passed.

Bhopal disaster open-in-new

Bhopal disaster