Bhopal: 30 Years of Tragedy

Bhopal is not yet at peace.
Three decades after the ‘1984 Gas Disaster’, numerous families are still trapped within the nightmare that began on a grim, distant night, searching still for the possibility of restoring health and dignity to their community.
Half a million people living in the capital of Madhya Pradesh, central India, were exposed to the toxic cloud released by the plant.
Thousands died it its wake.
Since then, in the consciousness of people the world over, Bhopal has been associated with the haunting images of that night and its aftermath, tragic demonstrations of the dangers and failures of unregulated industrialization and indiscriminate pollution.
Today, Union Carbide’s legacy is affecting the health of those who survived: approximately 100,000 people are chronically ill from the effects of the gas, while tainted drinking water has caused a sharp increase in birth defects and severe disabilities in children. Since the 11.6 billions US$ acquisition of Union Carbide by DOW Chemical in 2001, the American corporation has refused to accept any responsibility for the insidious contamination.
A long-running lawsuit against DOW Chemical in the USA is seeking damages for injury, medical monitoring, and for the mitigation of water and soil. Alarmingly, while defending itself in court, the chemical giant has been awarded a decade-long contract as a worldwide sponsor of the Olympic Movement, from 2010 to 2020.
When visiting Bhopal’s affected communities, I have strived to portray my subjects with intimacy, meaning and depth, trying to comprehend the victims’ suffering and allowing these intense feelings to lead me when finding expression through my camera. I aspired to present photographs that could convey emotions and stimulate our deepest feelings of compassion and brotherhood, in the hope of becoming a catalyst in the promotion of international awareness, solidarity and action for the people of Bhopal.