Al Jazeera examines the devastating events of Bhopal, India in 1984, when a cloud of poisonous gas released over the city killed thousands in the world's worst industrial disaster. Al Jazeera talks to survivors about the incident and its terrible legacy for those who live there.


A word on Bhopal and responsibility:

The cause of the disaster is a source of contension for those involved and hs never been fully determined. The victims of the disaster blame Union Carbide and corporate greed for having contributed to the disaster while Union Carbide maintains that the disaster was an act of sabotage caused by a disgruntled employee.

Generally, the cause of the disaster has been attributed to incompetence by workers at the Union Carbide India plant in Bhopal which is frequently seen as a seperate entity from Union Carbide itself.

Today, Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company which purchased the troubled corportaion years ago. Because Dow is now the parent company of Union Carbide, the victims of Bhopal (with much assistance and instigation from U.S. radical environmental groups like that of Greenpeace) have targeted Dow through protests and savvy media campaigns to spread awareness for their plight to the world at large.

Union Carbide has already paid hundreds of millions in compenstation to the victims of Bhopal and has even built a hospital that specializes in eye, ear and throat injuries and a vocational center to assist many of the poverty-sticken people of that city obtain and maintain employement.

However, the victims of Bhopal - pushed hard by U.S.-based radical environmental groups - are still protesting for millions more from Union Carbide and it's parent company Dow.