bhopal disaster

has anyone ever visited bhopal and met any of the victims of the disaster there, or any staff working to help the victims? does anyone know of any photo stories of the whole disaster? interested in what you have seen or read ... thanks

Hi Gandharan,

I dont know if this email arrives too late for you, but I've just joined this forum. I'm also very interested on the Bhopal disaster and want to visit the place on my journey to India, which I'm starting in one month. I read about it in a fantastic and touching book, written by two very well documented and reknowned journalists: "5 Past Midnight in Bhopal" (Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre). Here you'll find a lot of information, real personal stories and an investigative piece of work. There are also many pictures from those days. By the end of the book there's a reference from Lapierre to an association created in Bhopal and ways to help, I think. I'm sorry I cannot give you any more details, since I've lent the book.

K

Do you think it's better to keep anything untold? I dont think that, specially on this case, that's the best thing. Previous information could have saved many lives... not just on this occasion. The con of having so much information at hand sometimes is that you may get inmunised and start accepting those miseries as 'normal'

I was in Bhopal last year; it's a nice town and so unused to tourists that I found I was being treated as a human instead of an ATM machine.

I suppose you have read in the paper this week that the government is finally releasing $3-something million dollars to the victims of this event.

I haven't, no...well, that's something, after 20 years! :P

Three million dollars!!!???? wasn't the original out of court settlement around 47 million?
I wonder what happened to the other 44 million, or more to the point how much of this 3 million will make it to the victims instead of some goverment official's pocket?
Scandalous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

Three Million Dollars.....sounds big, but if u see the victims who survived and their children and grandchildren born much after the tragedy, u will have 2nd thoughts. I live in Bhopal and I have see the ground reality which is so so far removed from what Indian Goverment portrays and Western media perceives. To gauge who are the affected and the 'hows' u have to go and see for urself. Children born with deformities, pregnancies being aborted simultaneiously,directly affected ones suffering from cancer, TB to name a few is whta remains, not to forget the contaminated drinking water sources around the dissater site which bear testimony to apathy and cruelty shown by both Indian Govt. and Union Carbide, the guilty party.All that happenned in past 20 yrs. is pssing the buck around, and yes this compensation in itself is a big victory but is so small compared to the magnitude, and can one overlook the fact that all affected are not even officially listed among the receivers lists?.....blame game is easy, but real diffrence wd be in the lives of the poeple..... how much it has made or wd make.....

original out of court settlement $470 million, most paid by UCC, a token gesture paid by UCIL - all of it went to the Indian Gov't for distribution to victims. After 20 years, about 20% has gone to victims directly...on average the gov't has paid the equivalent of about $3000 for deaths and $870 for injuries. The rest....?