AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi
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The 1984 Bhopal disaster had such a large and devastating impact that people are still fighting for justice today, almost 26 years later. Twenty-seven tons of methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, and other toxic gases leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory and formed a cloud over at least 40 square kilometers in Bhopal, India.
To the delight of the activists who've been fighting all these years, India's supreme court has just agreed to review its earlier decision that categorized the crime as "a rash and negligent act" instead of "culpable homicide"—a decision that has allowed Union Carbide officials to be let off the hook way easier than the people affected by the accident would like.
Because of the lighter charges, seven Union Carbide officials received just two-year prison sentences when the court case finally concluded in June this year – 25 years after the accident, which the government says killed around 3,500 people. Activists say at least 22,000 died in the immediate aftermath and the following years.
The sentences led to a national outcry, forcing Delhi to tell the federal police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to ask the court for more stringent charges with punishment of up to 10 years in jail."For the first time after 26 years of struggle and suffering, suddenly we see a ray of hope thanks to the supreme court decision," Balkrishna Namdeo, a gas leak victim, said on television from Bhopal. "Now there is hope that we will get justice."
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