Bhopal
The city of
In Dec., 1984, a cloud of methyl isocynate gas escaped from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. An estimated 3,000 to 7,000 died immediately, 15,000 to 20,000 died from the effects in the years after the disaster, and 50,000 to 100,000 suffered from serious injuries as a result of the world's worst chemical disaster. The Indian government sued on behalf of 570,000 victims and in 1989 settled for $470 million in damages and exempted company employees from criminal prosecution. The Indian judiciary rejected that exemption in 1991, and the company's Indian assets were seized (1992) after its officials failed to appear to face charges. The chairman of Union Carbide's Indian branch and seven other of its Indian employees (one deceased) were convicted of death by negligence in 2010, and later that year the Indian government sued to increase the damages paid to $1.1 billion.
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