Bhopal

2 Dec 1984

Midnight. Puna Bai, a young mother of three, lived in Jai Prakash Nagar, across the road from the pesticide factory. On the night of 2 December 1984 her husband woke about midnight and got up for water. Then he heard screams outside. Her family ran, and in the crowd she lost them.

3 Dec 1984

Running. Hasira Bi woke around midnight to a noxious smell and people running every way. She gathered her family and fled with the crowd, and only later saw that she had left one son behind. She found him lying unconscious on a handcart. Bhopal’s police chief, Swaraj Puri, went to look: “You could see the cloud of gas moving in front of you.”

3 Dec 1984

The hours. Amnesty says workers first felt the gas about 11:30 p.m. and told their supervisor. Union Carbide’s own report has the supervisor telling the superintendent at 12:20. The alarm sounded about 1:00 and was then muted, and Amnesty writes that plant officials “did nothing to alert the communities” until about 2:00. The city’s magistrate says the first official warning came from a police patrol at 1:15, and that the collector learned the gas’s name at about 3:40. The people he reached were employees of Union Carbide India Limited. Amnesty also quotes Union Carbide’s Jackson Browning calling the gas “nothing more than a potent tear gas.”

3 Dec 1984

Counting the dead. Official counts depend on the date. Four months on, Union Carbide’s account says, India told Parliament 1,430. Al Jazeera reported the state’s December figure as at least 3,787. A 1990 state list had 3,828, Union Carbide’s chronology says. The Supreme Court’s 2011 order records 5,295, which an official said is the number of death claims adjudicated out of about 22,000 filed. The state relief department’s 15,248 by October 2003, Amnesty notes, includes an understated first count.

3 Dec 1984

Another count. Amnesty puts the first three days at 7,000 to 10,000, “two to three times that of most official sources,” and from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s study, ended in 1993, a further 15,000 by 2003: over 20,000 in all. Local groups used that study to calculate 9,667 deaths for 1985 to 1993. Union Carbide now cites government figures of about 5,200. Illahi Baksh, a municipal truck driver, told Amnesty he carried hundreds of bodies on 3 December.

2 Dec 1984

Who owned it. The plant belonged to Union Carbide India Ltd., a publicly traded company. A U.S. appeals court wrote in 1987 that Union Carbide Corporation, of Danbury, Connecticut, owned 50.9 percent, that 22 percent was “owned or controlled by the government of India,” and that about 23,500 Indian citizens held the rest. Union Carbide says the others were Indian financial institutions and private investors. In 1994, over survivors’ petitions, the Supreme Court let it sell its stake; Union Carbide says about $90 million went to a trust for a Bhopal hospital.

1984

Who ran it. Union Carbide says its Indian company designed, built and ran the plant to Indian government rules, that the only American there left in 1982, and cites Judge Keenan’s 2012 finding of “a marked lack of evidence of domination.” Amnesty answers that the parent held majority control; that UCIL wanted small containers for the gas and “UCC disagreed”; and that a former employee says each design change “was ratified and approved by Union Carbide officials in the United States.” Amnesty notes that, in 2004, no court had made a final ruling on the parent’s liability.

Sep 1984

The warnings. Amnesty says a May 1982 survey by Union Carbide’s own U.S. technicians found at least ten “major” hazards at Bhopal, and that the September 1984 survey above, of the West Virginia plant, warned of this reaction; it found no evidence that report reached Bhopal. Locally, it lists a lawyer’s letter in 1983 and a newspaper article in June 1984. A U.S. court recorded that Indian officials “regularly conducted on-site inspections”; Amnesty says state inspectors logged six accidents and did not follow up. Union Carbide’s published statements, as read here, do not answer the surveys by name.

2 Dec 1984

What was off. A named body found: India’s CSIR wrote in 1985 that storing so much gas was “entirely unnecessary.” Amnesty alleges cost cutting from 1983, an MIC unit down to six operators from 13, a refrigeration unit off since June 1984 and no emergency scrubber. A peer-reviewed review says the scrubber was off for three weeks and the flare out for three months. Union Carbide says the unit was shut six weeks before and its safety systems “could not have prevented a chemical reaction of this magnitude.” No court finding on these was read; the 2010 judgment, the one document that might hold some, was not.

7 Dec 1984

The chairman. Union Carbide’s account says its chairman, Warren Anderson, “accepted moral responsibility” on 4 December and flew to India, where it says he was put under house arrest and urged by the Indian government to leave within 24 hours. A Press Trust of India chronology says police arrested him on 7 December with Keshub Mahindra of the Indian company, and bailed him for $2,000 “upon a promise to return.” He went to New Delhi on the state’s plane and then home to the United States. In 2010 the state said it had no record of who gave the bail.

8 Apr 1985

One voice. On 29 March 1985 India gave its government the exclusive right to act for the victims. On 8 April it sued Union Carbide Corporation in New York, since a U.S. court recorded that Indian courts had no jurisdiction over the parent. Its later suit in Bhopal sought about $3.3 billion. Union Carbide says that figure was never the basis of talks: the most India ever demanded was $630 million. Amnesty wrote that the settlement “was negotiated without participation of the affected communities.”

14 Jan 1987

Sent to India. Union Carbide asked in July 1985 for the suits to be tried in India. The victims’ lawyers and India opposed. Judge John Keenan agreed in 1986, on conditions, and Amnesty reports he “expressly declined to make findings” on actual liability. Union Carbide accepted but appealed; in January 1987 the appeals court removed two conditions, one that it satisfy an Indian judgment and one on U.S.-style discovery, and India now backed the move. Union Carbide says its consent covered civil cases only, and that the Second Circuit agreed in 2006.

4 Apr 1988

What the courts said. Dow says “No court has ever ruled on UCC’s liability.” At the interim stage a court did say something. In December 1987 a Bhopal judge ordered Rs 350 crore deposited; in April 1988 the Madhya Pradesh High Court cut it to Rs 250 crore, holding, in Amnesty’s quotation, that Union Carbide Corporation was “absolutely liable” to pay compensation. That was an interim order, appealed. In 1991 the Supreme Court cautioned against assuming liability was established. Amnesty wrote in 2004 that no court had made a final ruling.

15 Feb 1989

$470 million. The Court did not try the case. It suggested a sum, and its order notes counsel’s “manifest reasonableness” in accepting terms “suggested by this Court.” The Union of India, sole claimant for the victims, agreed, and agreed with Madhya Pradesh to defend future suits. Union Carbide Corporation paid $425 million, less $5 million paid earlier, its Indian company the rupee equivalent of $45 million, “not as fines, penalties, or punitive damages.” Civil claims ended, criminal cases were quashed and the accused “deemed to be acquitted.” Dow says Union Carbide “was not held responsible.” The order records no finding on cause.

4 May 1989

What it came to. The Court worked from about 3,000 deaths and 30,000 serious injuries; its 2011 order records 5,295 deaths and the state 15,248. Per person: the BBC says survivors “got about $1,000 each”; Amnesty says the average death award by 1995 was Rs 73,638, about $1,605, and the average injury award Rs 26,531, about $545. Union Carbide says a 2004 order of the Court doubled each claimant’s award. Hameeda Bi said of the claims court: “In the court you were treated with no respect.”

3 Oct 1991

The review. In October 1991 the Supreme Court upheld the settlement but ruled that ending the criminal cases was not appropriate, so they were revived. It ordered health insurance for at least 100,000 people who might fall ill later, and held that India, as a welfare state, must make up any shortfall. The Union of India opposed later attempts to reopen the sum; in 2006 it called one “frivolous.” In 2023 the Court found the insurance was never bought. This story read the 1991 order only as quoted in 2023.

7 Jun 2010

Seven people and a company. The CBI charged UCIL’s officers in 1987 with culpable homicide, up to ten years. In 1996 the Supreme Court, on the accused’s plea, cut it to death by negligence, two years at most. On 7 June 2010 a Bhopal court convicted seven people, among them chairman Keshub Mahindra, and the company UCIL; all got the maximum and were bailed. In May 2011 the Supreme Court refused to recall its 1996 ruling but said the Sessions Court could still raise the charge; appeals were pending and are not traced here. Mahindra, unhappy with the verdict, asked: “Where are the evidences.” He died in 2023; his obituary says he did not serve prison time.

Jun 2004

The absconders. Anderson and Union Carbide Corporation were ordered to appear in 1992; the court declared both absconders and split their case from the others’. Union Carbide says the court has no criminal jurisdiction over it and the charges had been quashed. India asked the U.S. for Anderson in 2003; the U.S. refused in 2004, which Union Carbide says was because India had not shown a prima facie case. In 2001 India’s Attorney General, relaying U.S. lawyers who listed four evidence gaps, assumed they could be filled but advised against, citing Anderson’s age, health and India’s 17-year delay. A 2010 renewal was pending when Anderson died, aged 92, on 29 September 2014.

29 Nov 2004

Sabotage? Arthur D. Little’s 1988 paper for Union Carbide says: “We believe” a “disgruntled operator” hooked a hose to tank 610. Its author notes his firm “were a part of this investigation team.” Union Carbide says its safety systems would have kept water out by accident, and that police barred interviews for over a year. Amnesty says Union Carbide’s 1985 report named no cause, workers say it was routine pipe washing, and the company “has refused to name the employee and has not produced any specific evidence in court regarding sabotage.” Edward Broughton’s review says Union Carbide “fabricated scenarios involving sabotage”; independent sources impugned it.

3 Dec 2010

Dow. Dow bought Union Carbide’s shares in February 2001, over 16 years after the leak. Dow says Union Carbide stayed a separate company and Dow took on none of its liabilities, and that the Indian criminal court has no jurisdiction over it. Amnesty says that despite owning all of it, Dow “has never compelled UCC to face the outstanding criminal charges,” and that the Bhopal court summoned Dow in July 2013. Dow says its notice to show cause is “a procedural step,” “nor a summons.” India’s 2010 petition named Dow a respondent; Dow says it should not have been party.

14 Mar 2023

2023. In December 2010 India asked the Court to add Rs 7,844 crore to the Rs 750 crore paid; by 2022 the claim stood near Rs 14,000 crore. On 14 March 2023 five judges dismissed the petitions. They found the sum sufficient: apart from minor injuries it “was actually in excess” of the Union’s own figures, and the Welfare Commissioner put payouts at nearly six times motor-accident claims. “No amount is truly adequate,” they wrote, “Nevertheless” a lump sum had to be fixed. A “top up” had no footing in law, and India’s failure to buy the insurance was “gross negligence.” Amnesty wrote in 2014 that many, itself included, see the sum as highly inadequate.

Jun 2013

The ground. Amnesty wrote in 2004 that the site “continues to pollute the groundwater”; the Supreme Court said in May 2004 that dumping had damaged groundwater, and ordered tanker water. India’s NEERI found contamination inside the plant in 1997 and none outside; in 2010 it found groundwater “in general” not contaminated by the dumps, but waste recovery “incomplete.” A 2013 review of 15 studies found site soil contaminated and groundwater findings varied. The state’s chief minister said in 2009 there was “nothing hazardous to human life.” Union Carbide says clean-up is the state’s; a U.S. court held in 2013 that it “is not that entity.”

30 Jun 2025

What remains. In January 2025 trucks began moving waste from the Bhopal site to Pithampur: 377 tons by the first report, 337 by the later official figure. By 30 June, an official said, 337 tons had been burned there; ash and residue were still to be buried. Activists say a 2015 trial burn polluted groundwater near Pithampur; the state relief department rejects that. In 2009 the campaigner Satinath Sarangi said thousands of tons had been dumped on the Bhopal site and covered over. Whether any remains is not settled in the sources read.