Victims of toxic gas leak disaster in India still struggling after 33 years

Many survivors of the world's deadliest industrial disaster are still struggling to recover and are demanding that the Indian government do more to help.

Partially blind gas victim and other victims are seen in the premises of Bhopal court in Bhopal, India, on June 7, 2010.
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Partially blind gas victim and other victims are seen in the premises of Bhopal court in Bhopal, India, on June 7, 2010.

It's been more than three decades since the world's deadliest industrial disaster.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas accidentally leaked from a pesticide factory owned by US multinational Union Carbide Corporation and was carried by the wind into the surrounding slums in India's Bhopal city.

The government recorded 5,295 deaths. Activists estimate 25,000 deaths from illnesses since the leak. 

Many people still suffer from cancer, blindness, respiratory problems and immune and neurological disorders and are still struggling to recover and are demanding that the Indian government do more to help. 

Current owners of the factory, Dow Chemical, has denied liability, saying it bought Union Carbide a decade after the firm settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million.

TRT World's Philip Owira Reports

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