Oxen working the fields … the eternal river Gange … jewled elephants on parade. Today these symbols of ancient India exist side by side with a new sight-modern industry. India has developed bold new plans to build its economy and bring the promise of a bright future to its more than 400,000,000 people. But India needs knowledge from the western world. For example working with Indian engineers and technicians, Union Carbide recently made available its vast scientific resources to help build major chemicals and plastics plants near Bombay.

The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 was an industrial disaster that was caused by the accidental release of 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL, now known as Eveready Industries India, Limited) pesticide plant partly (50.9%) owned by Union Carbide located in the heart of the city of Bhopal, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The BBC gives the death toll as nearly 3,000 people dead initially and at least 15,000 from related illnesses since, while Greenpeace cites 20,000 total deaths as a conservative estimate.

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