Poison present

Greenpeace Greenpeace and Bhopal disaster survivors transported toxic waste from the Bhopal disaster site to Dow Chemical Co's largest European operation, Dow Benelux, in the Dutch town of Terneuzen. About 20 activists were arrested after they unloaded 250 kg of the waste contained in seven barrels.

Exposure: Portrait of a corporate crime

EXPOSURE: PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME Photographs of Bhopal by Raghu Rai . Published by Greenpeace International . August 2002

Serious setback

the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy --the world's worst industrial disaster --feel they have been shortchanged yet again. The recent turn of events in their protracted fight for justice may have, in fact, shattered their last hopes.

No gas mask

distance from the poison-producing plant was not the only deciding factor. Unlike what previous research would have us believe, the adverse health effects resulting from the Bhopal gas tragedy cannot be assessed only on the basis of how near the victim lived to the Union Carbide plant.

Toxic future

bhopal gas victims are still facing the backlash of a tragedy that happened 17 years ago. Toxic chemicals released from the Union Carbide factory have not just seeped into the soil and groundwater but now traces of these toxins are being found in mother's milk too. A fact-finding mission (FFM) has revealed that chemicals such as lead, chromium, mercury, nickel, haloorganics, chlorobenzenes and the pesticide BHC are being passed on from breast milk to the feeding child.

Hope in sight

for 17 years they have fought two grim battles -- one in court and the other for life. Finally, the protracted struggle of the five lakh people devastated by the lethal gas leak in Bhopal in December 1984 appears to be bearing fruit. At least on the legal front.

Wronged again

Payback time

on the basis of a fresh petition filed by the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan and Bhopal Group for Information and Action, the Supreme Court has ordered that compensation should be paid to some of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. As per the notification dated March 2, 2001, the compensation should be paid within the next 60 days.

Bhopal revisited

as preparations for yet another anniversary to mark the Bhopal gas tragedy got underway, a rude shock awaited the victims. The Madhya Pradesh government was reportedly planning to close the down the Gas Relief and Rehabilitation department. Sixteen years ago, a leak of the deadly methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide claimed more than 2,000 lives.

The chemistry of living death

THE world's biggest industrial disaster has been rendered today its most trivial. Criminal corporate culpability and governmental concern for its poorest of the poor are the 2 elements missing in Bhopal a full decade aft methyl isocyanate leaked from a U Carbide plant and littered the city's streets with the dead, the dying am those destined to ebb in slow agony.