Survivors of Bhopal’s Toxic Gas Leak Await a Cleanup, 40 Years Later
A belated effort to remove chemical waste from the Union Carbide factory revives complaints of justice left incomplete.
Illustration: Isabella Cotier for Bloomberg
For Raeesa Bi, the latest turn in the four-decade tale of the world’s worst industrial accident conjures up old ghosts. Sitting on a beat-up wooden chair in her small ramshackle home, the 68-year-old victims’ rights activist rattles off the names of all the people she knew who have died since that dreadful December night. It is a long list, and includes fellow activists, neighbors and several members of her own family — all victims, directly or indirectly, of the gas leak in Union Carbide’s pesticides factory in Bhopal, India.
“My anger is with the government. They made all the decisions,” says Raeesa. “We got little compensation, we are still standing in courtrooms for justice and we still don’t get the right medical treatment.”