BHOPAL: India’s central government and the state government of Madhya Pradesh are in denial over the scale of the tragedy that occurred 30 years ago when at least 5,000 people died here in a devastating Union Carbide gas leak that has caused continuing ill health for some 500,000. Neither government has even begun to deal adequately with what needs to be done in terms of compensation, health care, and cleaning up the factory’s contaminated 70-acre site.
Tomorrow night (December 2) will be the 30th anniversary of the moment when toxic gases from the pesticide factory swept in a fatal wave through nearby slums and spread across the city.
The situation has not changed since I last reported here on the 25th anniversary, and it seems likely that nothing will change for another five or ten years or even longer unless Narendra Modi, India’s new and energetic prime minister…
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