By 1993, Adil’s mother was married, pregnant with Adil, and Carbide’s silence had lasted four years. When environmentalists, alarmed by soaring rates of cancer, birth-defects and early deaths near the plant, expressed fears that chemicals might be poisoning the water supply, Carbide denounced them as mischief-makers.

In 1999 Greenpeace tested soil and water in 14 areas near the factory. They found mercury levels 6,000,000 times higher than normal and more than 30 chemicals in the water — many proven to cause birth defects and cancers. A 2001 study found lead, mercury and the factory’s signature poisons in the breast milk of nursing mothers. In some communities 95 per cent of women are anaemic. During Carbide’s ten years of silence, hundreds of children were born with terrible injuries. If you are willing to risk being seriously upset, you can see their pictures on www.bhopal.org.

Union Carbide’s final act of contempt was to leave Bhopal without cleaning its factory. Twenty-four years after the gas disaster, chemicals spill from rotting sacks and drums. People still have to drink poisoned water. Damaged children are still being born.

Union Carbide (US), majority shareholder in the factory, disclaims responsibility for the ongoing poisoning. For 16 years it has also refused to appear in the Bhopal court where it is faces serious criminal charges relating to the gas disaster. Carbide is now 100 per cent owned by Dow Chemical, which set aside $2.3 billion to meet Carbide’s US asbestos liabilities, but refuses to accept Carbide’s Indian liabilities. Dow’s managers sit on Carbide’s board, but Dow pretends it has no power to produce its wholly-owned subsidiary in court.

... contd.