The Green Revolution: Union Carbide India

BEFORE THE DESASTER
Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal was established in 1969 to manufacture pesticides in the light of ‘The Green Revolution’. The plant was seen as a scope for development and job opportunities by the government authorities and the residents of Bhopal. UCIL being an extension of an international company, implied that it would provide better and higher salary to its workers and hence a higher social status too. Therefore, rather than concentrating at the possible negative impacts on the health of the residents and the surrounding environment; the authorities only looked at the developmental aspect of an MNC establishment in the city.
From 1977 to 1982, an American engineer was appointed as the manager who maintained

Criminal Proceedings
On the 4th of December, 1984, Warren Anderson was placed under house arrest and was advised to leave return to USA by the central government, which was then headed by Rajiv Gandhi. After three years, the CBI filled a chargesheet against Warren Anderson and eleven others were charged for culpable homicide and other crimes. Within the spam of two months the Chief Justice Magistrate of Bhopal issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest Warren Anderson for repeatedly ignoring court hears later in 1992, declared Anderson a fugitive by law.
Warren Anderson’s absence for court summons lead to more protests all over the world. In many protests, Anderson was being compared to Osama, and was called a corporate terrorist. The Indian Government too passed for an extradition to the US government for Warren Anderson, but the US government refused to hear the appeal.
From 1992 to 2002, there was no information available about the where-abouts Warren Anderson. Finally in August 2002, a British newspaper reported that Warren was located in New York. However when asked by the US government, they claimed that they were unable to locate him and hence he could never be punished for his

On the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World news as one of the main spokespersons of Dow Chemicals. In order to pressurise Dow Chemicals, the new owner of Union Carbide, Bichbaum went on the news and claimed that Dow Chemicals was ready to $12billion pay for medical care of the victims of the disaster, to clean up the site and to fund any research that would help in avoiding disasters like the Bhopal Gas Disaster.
After two hours of wide coverage, Dow issued a press release denying the statement, ensuring even greater coverage of the phony news of a cleanup.
Even today, after all the protests the site remains as contaminated and the residents remain exposed to the hazardous toxic material.
CONCLUSION
The Bhopal Gas Disaster is a complex case if seen from a legal point of view. It involves critics from all sides that blame the Indian and US Government, the Union Carbide Company and the legal workers that were given the responsibility of handling the case. It also highlights the lack of importance given to the Environment by the Indian authorities and the lack of rules made to protect the