BHOPAL, 3 December 2005 — Victims and environmental activists launched protests and vigils here yesterday to mark the 21st anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives in 1984.
In New Delhi, the global environmental group Greenpeace, demanding better conditions for survivors, acted out a recreation of the disaster which struck the central Indian town of Bhopal just before midnight on Dec. 2. Some 40 tons of lethal methyl isocyanate gas billowed from the Union Carbide plant, located 740 kilometers (460 miles) from the capital.
In Bhopal, a museum dedicated to victims of the tragedy was inaugurated yesterday. Children born with deformities in the city following the disaster led a protest march to the industrial site.
Thousands of people were also expected to join a night-time vigil in Bhopal on Saturday, organizers said.
Survivor Champa Devi Shukla, vice president of the Bhopal Gas Affected Stationary Workers’ Union, which represents staff of units established by the government to rehabilitate survivors, was to join the Greenpeace protest. “We are still suffering from the effect of contaminated water. When my daughter was born four years ago, she had no lips or nose. No one wants to marry the girls there, as they do not menstruate because of toxic water,” Shukla told AFP.
Activists say that around 20,000 people living near the site of the Union Carbide plant are still drinking contaminated water. “We want to remind the government that similar disasters are waiting to happen across the country because of the presence of industrial wastes in the environment,” said Greenpeace media officer Namrata Chowdhary.
— With input from agencies
