Hundreds of Bhopal Gas tragedy survivors on Sunday formed a human chain in protest here on the eve of the 35th anniversary of what has widely been acknowledged as the world's worst industrial disaster.
Leaking toxic gas from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and left lakhs maimed on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.
The protesters on Sunday said the exposure to the toxic gas and the waste dumped in the premises of the defunct factory continued to cause them health problems, and demanded that Dow Chemicals, the current owner of Union Carbide, pay compensation under the "polluter pays principle".
"Because of reckless dumping of extremely poisonous waste within the pesticide factory till 1984 and outside it in 1996, groundwater has been contaminated in places over four kilometres around it," said activist Rashida Bi, who was accompanied by Champa Devi Shukla, a Goldman Environmental Prize awardee.
"Since 1990, groundwater has been tested some 16 times by government and non-government agencies. These have shown pesticides, heavy metals and poisonous chemicals, including six persistent organic pollutants, at depths greater than 30 metres and distances of several kilometers from the factory," she alleged.
Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said, "According to the latest study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, a Central government agency, the groundwater in 42 communities, with a population of nearly 100,000, is contaminated and continues to spread."
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