Dead Air: Indra Sinha

Abstract

The Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 has been called the world’s worst industrial disaster. The release of a deadly cocktail of toxic gases, mainly composed of methyl isocyanite (MIC), from the pesticide factory owned by the giant multinational company Union Carbide, affected an estimated 200,000 people out of the 900,000 who lived in this rapidly-expanding central Indian city. Between 5000 and 10,000 people were killed almost immediately, with a further 60,000 sustaining injuries and a significant number succumbing to these over the next days, months and years. The horrific damage to animal and plant life remains largely uncharted.