The Bhopal Gallery

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Since 1984 the Western World seems either to have forgotten Bhopal, or the name has become an abstract symbol in the same way that Dunblane and Lockerbie have. In India ecological disasters are often labelled"mini-Bhopals" or "the next Bhopal". In Bhopal the survivors harbour anger and resentment mainly for the way in which they have been treated by their government and Union Carbide since the disaster as well as for the disaster itself.

The gas spread through the slums and poor suburbs, which are clustered around the factory. If it had made it across the vast lakes to New Bhopal and the affluent end of town things may have turned out differently however, many unaffected people now think that the survivors should stop moaning and move on. As it stands, most of the survivors have received about £350 (Rs 25,000) in compensation from Union Carbide, about half of which has been deducted to repay earlier government relief. This leaves many of the survivors badly in debt having sold their homes and possessions to cover medical expenses.

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The medical legacy of the disaster continues. A medical survey conducted between 1987 and 1991 showed that there was a threefold increase in the number of people with respiratory symptoms. As well as asthma, recurrent chest infections and fibrosis of the lungs the prevalence of pulmonary chest infection is more than three times the national average. There is a host of other lasting medical and psychiatric problems associated with surviving the disaster including eye damage, joint pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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The full extent of these symptoms is not known since medical research was terminated in 1994. These problems are compounded because government doctors have never kept medical records on people seeking help. In fact they have been seriously criticised for using inappropriate drugs to provide short-term relief and ignoring long-term treatment of chronic illnesses. The government has built several new hospitals. The largest (the Kamala Nehru hospital) is still not completed and despite being started in 1987 has not treated a single gas victim. During it's construction the cost of the Kamala Nehru hospital has tripled and survivors groups have made accusations of profiteering and corruption.

Stories of corruption within the government hospital system are common and usually concern doctors who refuse to see patients admitted unless they turn up for their private clinics. One woman said that she had to pay a large bribe to a doctor to see her father after he had lain comatose in a hospital bed for two weeks without being examined. Many families have had to sell everything that they own in order meet large medical expenses.

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It was in response to the government's appallingly chaotic medical response that the Sambhavna Trust clinic was opened in 1996. It offers a choice of conventional or ayurvedic treatment as well as massage and yoga therapies. Unlike the government hospitals keep detailed records on each patient and constantly evaluate the effectiveness of all the treatments they offer. The Trust raises money from private donation and refuses corporate donations.

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Union Carbide's response to the disaster was denial. After failing to raise the alarm once the MIC leak had been detected, Union Carbide then declared that the gas was "like tear gas" and that "you apply water [to the eyes] and you get relief". A few days later, even after the death toll topped 8,000 people, a Union Carbide representative was quoted as saying that the gas was "nothing more than a potent tear gas". Doctors associated with Union Carbide pump out misinformation, attempting to hide any evidence that the effects of exposure to the gas were permanent.

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In the years that followed Union Carbide did everything they could to play down what had happened and to escape criminal charges and payment of compensation. The Indian government, on behalf of the victims, filed a suit for 3 billion US dollars but eventual settled for only 470 million US dollars. In return criminal charges against the corporation would be dropped and the Indian government would defend any other suits filed against Union Carbide. With the amount of people involved this level of compensation is less than the Indian government standard for railway accidents.

On appeal in 1991 the Supreme Court (the highest court in India) ruled that the amount of compensation would stand but in addition Union Carbide must build a 500-bed hospital. It also revoked the corporation's immunity from prosecution and charges of culpable homicide were reinstated. In 1992 after the failure of Union Carbide's representatives, including Warren Anderson, to respond to numerous summonses, Bhopal District Court froze the parent companies shares in the Indian subsidiary.

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The response of Union Carbide was to create the Bhopal Hospital Trust (BHT) to build the hospital. Despite a Bhopal Court ruling that money for the hospital should come from Union Carbide itself the Supreme Court allowed the BHT to receive the money from the sale of the subsidiary shares. Union Carbide itself only donated one thousand pounds to initiate the BHT and now free from punitive measures has continued to ignore summonses.

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The BHT's health care plans have been seriously criticised by several medical bodies and survivors groups have questioned the sense of building another hospital in a city that probably has more hospital beds per head of population than any other city in the world. These survivors groups are also concerned that a company previously engaged in chemical and biological warfare research should be permitted to run a ten-bed research unit in the hospital, especially considering that there is no undertaking to release findings. While the hospital was under construction the building site was raided by labour officials who found that child labourers, as young as nine years old, were being employed.

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Today the decaying the Union Carbide factory remains abandoned and decaying, even the slums that were upwind from the factory on the night of the disaster are now being effected. Toxic material, released as the factory decays, has entered the ground water use by the slums for washing, cooking and drinking. The site in now owned by the state government who have recently been searching for a way to redevelop the area. One suggestion that surfaced and was quickly condemned by activists was to build a theme park to attract tourists.

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Another disturbing legacy of the Bhopal disaster has appeared recently. When DuPont were negotiating with the Indian government over plans to build a nylon factory in Goa, they insisted that the parent company would not be liable for any industrial disaster that may befall the Indian subsidiary.