Photos: On this day – December 3, 1984 – The Bhopal Disaster

Posted Dec 03, 2012

On this day – December 3, 1984 – The Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

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Families mourn the victims of a poisonous gas leak which killed as many as 1,000 in the central Indian city of Bhopal, Dec. 4, 1984. The gas escaped early Monday from an underground storage tank at a Union Carbide pesticide factory. Many were felled in their homes and more than 20,000 were stricken in what is believed the world's worst poisonous gas disaster. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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Aftermath of poisonous gas leak at Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in December, 1984. Firemen hose water over canvas screens at factory boundaries to prevent the spread of dangerous fumes. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Bodies were stacked near morgues in the central Indian City of Bhopal where a leak of poisonous gas killed as many as 1,000 people, Dec. 4, 1984. The leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant was believed to be the world's worst poisonous gas tragedy. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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Thousands of animals perished in the disaster caused by a poisonous gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, on Dec. 4, 1984. Chemicals leaked from the plant during the night, killing more than 2,000 people and affecting 200,000 others. (AP Photo/Thiang)
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This photo shows some of the thousands of people stricken by a poisonous gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, on Dec. 4, 1984. Poisonous chemicals leaked from the plant during the night, killing more than 2,000 people and affecting 200,000 others. People were treated for nausea, shortness of breath and red eyes. (AP Photo/Sondeep)
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While mourning the death of his wife, a father feeds his child in the aftermath of the leak of poisonous gas from the Union Carbide pesticide factory, Dec. 5, 1984, in the central Indian city of Bhopal in which more than 1,000 people are feared dead. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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Friends and relatives bury the victims of the world's worst poisonous gas disaster in the central Indian city of Bhopal, Dec. 5, 1984, where more than 1,000 people are feared dead and over 20,000 seriously stricken. The Union Carbide pesticide factory is in the background. (AP Photo)
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Relatives and friends carry a body for cremation, Dec. 5, 1984 in the central Indian city of Bhopal where more than 1,000 people died when poisonous gas leaked early Monday from a Union Carbide pesticide factory. The factory, which caused the world's worst poisonous gas disaster, is in the background. (AP Photo)
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Two men carry children blinded by the Union Carbide chemical pesticide leak to a hospital in Bhopal, India, Dec. 5, 1984. Thousands were killed and seriously injured in the gas leak. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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People continue to report to hospitals for treatment of blindness caused by the poisonous gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticides factory, Dec. 6, 1984, in this central Indian city of Bhopal. They are being escorted to the hospital but do not know where they are going. (AP Photo)
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This child, not knowing what happened in Bhopal, central India, enjoys his milk, Dec. 6, 1984. The poisonous gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide factory killed more than 1,200 people and more than 20,000 were seriously injured. Unofficial estimates said 2,000 died. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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Victims of the Bhopal poisonous gas disaster lay in the back of a truck, waiting transportation, in Bhopal, India, Dec. 6, 1984. Unofficial figures claim that over 2,000 have died from the poisonous fumes from a local pesticide plant. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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A mother comforts her baby after a poisonous gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticides plant that killed more than 1,200 people and seriously injured 20,000 others in Bhopal, India, Dec. 6, 1984. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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An Indian woman cradles her baby blinded by poisonous gas which leaked in Bhopal from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Central India, Dec. 7, 1984. Many people have suffered blindness, eye ulcers and eye irritation. Doctors also have reported stillbirths and say long term effects could include permanent blindness, partial paralysis, lung, liver and kidney damage. (AP Photo)
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Mother Teresa comforts a young victim of the Bhopal, India gas tragedy, Dec. 11, 1984, during a visit to the town where more than two thousands people died in the poisonous gas leak from a Union Carbide chemical plant. (AP Photo)
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Mother Teresa shaking hands with victims still suffering from the after-effects of the poison-gas disaster in Bhopal on Dec. 11, 1984 which killed more than 2,000 people. Thousands are still suffering from injuries sustained when the gas leaked from a Union Carbide manufacturing facility in Bhopal. (AP Photo)
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Happy, bewildered, or just tired, these are some of the faces on a crowded train leaving Bhopal station as rumors made people leave their homes in case further gas leaks occurred at the Union Carbide plant, Dec. 12, 1984. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Junior doctors, who were on strike to protest a clash between a politician and a senior physician, return to treat Bhopal gas victims under the cover of canvas, outside the Hamidea Hospital, Dec. 12, 1984 in Bhopal. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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The two American lawyers who are involved in claims in the Union Carbide gas disaster, Michael Tobin, left, and Melvin Belli, talk to the press on their arrival at Bhopal Airport, Dec. 12, 1984. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Entrance to the U.S.-owned Union Carbide plant, in Bhopal, India, in December 1984. Poisonous gas recently escaped from the plant, killing nearly 2,000 people and leaving over 100,000 suffering from nausea, shortness of breath and blindness. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Inhabitants of Bhopal, India, prepare to evacuate their homes and businesses near the Union Carbide plant, December 12, 1984. Following a gas leak from the plant, nearly 2,000 people were killed and over 100,000 suffered from nausea, shortness of breath and blindness. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Families wait besides their belongings for transportation to take them out of Bhopal, Dec. 13, 1984, after authorities announced the Union Carbide plant will go back into operation to process the remaining poison gas. The announcement triggered a new exodus from Bhopal and created chaos at the town's train and bus stations. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Men, women and children sit in a tent in a temporary refugee camp set up to evacuate people from areas around the Union Carbide factory during the neutralization of the plant's remaining 15 tons of methyl isocyanate, Dec. 14, 1984 in Bhopal. (AP Photol/Peter Kemp)
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People leave Bhopal to travel to camps a safe distance from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal as the management announced measures to neutralize the remaining fifteen tons of methyl isocyanate at the plant, Dec. 14, 1984. This process, they say, will take four days. (AP Photo)
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Bhopal residents pack a bus in Bhopal as the exodus from the city continued on the eve of the planned operation to make the remaining poisonous gas harmless at the accident site at the Union Carbide plant, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Men, women and children wait for a bus to leave Bhopal, Dec. 15, 1984. Despite official assurances about safety, frightened residents left by bus, train and foot for fear of another gas leak like the one that killed more than 2,000 people on December 3. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Men, women and children wait for a bus to leave Bhopal, Dec. 15, 1984. Despite official assurances about safety, frightened residents left by bus, train and foot for fear of another gas leak like the one that killed more than 2,000 people on December 3. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Refugee shelters at the main city stadium in Bhopal house only a few people as most of the evacuated residents fled Bhopal because they felt it was not safe to be in the city during the operation to render the remaining toxic gas harmless, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene at Bhopal, India where thousands were killed when a Union Carbide gas leak occurred, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene at Bhopal, India where thousands were killed when a Union Carbide gas leak occurred, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene at Bhopal, India where thousands were killed when a Union Carbide gas leak occurred, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene at Bhopal, India where thousands were killed when a Union Carbide gas leak occurred, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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This was the scene at Bhopal, India where thousands were killed when a Union Carbide gas leak occurred, Dec. 15, 1984. (AP Photo)
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Workmen douse tarpaulins with water in Bhopal before scientists started to neutralize the remaining poisonous gas in the Union Carbide pesticide plant, Dec. 16, 1984. The wet shrouds were supposed to contain any leaking gas. No leaks were reported. The process is expected to take four or five days. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Workers spray water on a section of tarpaulin fencing erected around the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, Dec. 17, 1984, to make sure that any escaping gas would be trapped. No leaks were reported as remaining poisonous gas was converted to pesticide. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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An Indian carries his belongings back down the road to the city of Bhopal, Dec. 18, 1984 after the Union Carbide plant had successfully converted poisonous gas into pesticides, without leakage. The leakage of the poisonous gas from the plant had earlier killed thousands of people. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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American Congressman Stephen Solarz watches as Dr. Ross Brechner from Evergreen, Colorado examines the eyes of one of the victims of the Bhopal gas disaster at the Hamedia Hospital, Dec. 18, 1984 in Bhopal. Solarz, from New York, was in Bhopal on a fact finding mission. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Water is hosed onto canvas screens set up around the Union Carbide plant, in Bhopal, India, Dec. 18, 1984, as part of measures taken to avoid further leakage of fumes that had earlier taken a huge toll of deaths and injuries. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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This shanty town outside the gates of the Union Carbide factory, gets back to normal as the last of the toxic gases were being removed from the plant, Dec. 23, 1984 in Bhopal. (AP Photo/Earleen Tatro)
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A woman who lives in a nearby slum is shown collecting water in front of the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, on Feb. 27, 1985. The chemical plant leaked poisonous gas on Dec. 3, killing more than 2,000 people and affecting 200,000 others. Many more people living in slums around the plant suffer from after-effects caused by the chemical accident in 1984. (AP Photo/Henderson)
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An Indian technician in a gas mask opens the tank from which more than 40 tons of lethal methyl isocyanate leaked December 3, killing more than 2,000 people near the Union Carbide pesticide plant. Technicians collected the polymerized residue from the tank, April 10, 1985 in Bhopal. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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An unidentified Indian couple, both reportedly blinded by the disastrous gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, stand before the plant a year after the tragic event, Nov. 18, 1985. Behind them was an effigy of an affected worker put up by the protesters. Lawyers for Union Carbide and the government of India face a deadline Wednesday for a settlement in the 1984 gas disaster case. Both sides say an agreement is near. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)
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The concrete slab covering the 50,000-ton underground tank of deadly methyl isocyanate in the Union Carbide plant here was spilt from end to end by the explosive leak, Dec. 3, 1985 in Bhopal that killed at least 2,000. (AP Photo/Sondeep Shankar)
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Survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster burn a straw effigy they say represents Union Carbide Corp. in Bhopal, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1990. A gas leak from a pesticide plant operated by Union Carbide killed at least 3,600 people and injured 20,000 others in December 1984. (AP Photo)