Forgotten Bhopal Remains Outside The Statistics Of 'Growth'

NEW DELHI: December 3, 2014, marks the 30th anniversary of one of the world’s deadliest industrial accidents. On the same date in 1984, a massive gas leak at a Union Carbide Corp. pesticide factory in the city of Bhopal killed over 20,000 and poisoned more than half a million.

To mark thirty years of the disaster, Amnesty International commissioned photographer Raghu Rai -- who had taken a series of photographs thirty years ago -- to turn the lens to survivors and their story.

Rai’s collection of photographs provide an insight into the Bhopal tragedy, then and now.

(The victim, identified as Leela, lived in the Chola colony near the Union Carbide factory. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos)

(A man carried the body of his dead wife past the deserted Union Carbide factory, the source of the toxic gas that killed her the night before in December 1984. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos).

(Mass cremation of victims held alongside the communal graves in Bhopal, December 1984. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos).

(Shahzadi Bi and her husband stand about 100 meters from her home, at the base of a pond which Union Carbide used to dump factory waste. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos)

(Patients at Sambhavna clinic, which runs free clinics for survivors of the gas leaks. The clinic, set up by activists, provides vital care where government efforts have failed. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos).

(Rampyari Bai, is one of Bhopal’s most persistent survivors. In 1984 she was living with her son and his wife near the factory. Her daughter-in-law was seven months pregnant that night, and as the gas fumes filled the air, she suddenly went into labour. She and her baby died soon afterwards. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos).

(Survivors of the 1984 gas tragedy protesting in September 2014 outside the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s residence, demanding proper compensation. Image courtesy Amnesty International Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos).

Thirty years on, there is a call for justice for the victims. #BhopalDisaster is trending on Twitter, with the Twitterati posting pictures and articles of the leak, calling on the government to not forget the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.