It was on December 3,1984 that lethal methyl isocyanate gas, leaked from the Union Carbide India Limited’s(UCIL) pesticide factory, killing over 15000 people and affecting more than five lakh people due to exposure to this gas and contamination of drinking water in a five sq.km area by large amounts of chemical waste dumped in and around the factory grounds. The chemical waste is still there after 25 years of disaster, and the company which bought UCC ,Dow chemical Company, refuses to clean up the mess and in turn has landed lawsuits on protestors. Although the unofficial figures of the death toll are even higher, as the people who were exposed to this gas developed complications after some time and the children born to them were born with birth defects.
Its been 25 years since this tragedy, and the main accused in this case Mr. Warren Anderson, who was the chairman and CEO of the U.S. headquartered Union Carbide Corporation(UCC), (whose Indian subsidiary is Union Carbide India Ltd), is still living a luxurious life
