40 years of Bhopal Gas tragedy: How did the world’s worst industrial disaster unfold? What has happened since?

In the intervening hours of December 2 and December 3 1984, poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbine chemical plant on the outskirts of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, instantly killing thousands and maiming lakhs of others. File image/AFP Just after the clock struck 12 at night on December 2, 1984, an industrial accident began to unfold at Union Carbide chemical plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal — that has gone down in history as the world’s worst industrial disaster. Victims of the Bhopal tragedy wait to be treated at Bhopal’s hospital where a poison gas leak from the Union Carbide factory. “I wish I had died that night.” A man carries the body of a victim of the Bhopal tragedy where a poison gas leak from the Union Carbide factory. Satinath Sarangi, founder of Sambhavna, a clinic, says, “In 2011, we’d taken stock through our registered cohorts and we found there was 28 per cent more mortality among the gas exposed.” Call for compensation over Bhopal Gas tragedy In the aftermath of the accident, a legal battle began, with activists demanding damages and that Union Carbide take accountability for their actions in the tragedy.