The Toxic Legacy of the Green Revolution Neeta Kolkanwar (right) sits besides her son Siddesh Kolkanwar at the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre in Bhopal, India. Kolkanwar suffers from mild physical disabilities while her son Siddesh is both physically and psychologically disabled. Currently, 250 children receive long-term care and rehabilitation free of cost at the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre. Many more await for a spot to open up at the rehabilitation center in order to get treated. Discarded jars of chemicals sit in the abandoned Union Carbide factory in Bhopal India. The 1984 MIC gas leak at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal killed over 8000 people, making it the biggest industrial disaster ever. Toxic material from the past factory operations and the defunct plant continues to contaminate soil and groundwater in the vicinity, impacting the health of many. Waheeda Bee feeds water to her severely disabled son Sameer Hassan, 19. The family lives in Qazi Camp, a neighborhood adjacent to the abandoned UCIL plant in Bhopal, India. The groundwater in the vicinity is considered carcinogenic and mutagenic due to toxic releases from the former operations and abandonment of the UCIL factory. Hassan’s father was exposed to MIC gas during the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak disaster Asna Bee, a 20-year-old who suffers from severe limb defects, lives in Nawab Colony, Bhopal, India, a neighborhood impacted by the 1994 MIC gas leak disaster as well as groundwater contamination. Due to reproductive difficulties and disabilities resulting from exposure to the MIC gas leak and consumption of contaminated groundwater many women in the neighborhoods surrounding the UCIL Bhopal facility are deemed undesirable marriage partners. They continue to face significant social stigma. Many are unable to attain economic security and are often viewed as a liability Zaid (right), 14 chats with his friends Mannan (left) and Shifaan (center) during a break at the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre in Bhopal, India. Zaid was diagnosed with Mucopolysaccharidosis Mongolism at birth. He has been receiving therapy at the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre since 2011. Ankit Kureen (left) and Tarun Verma (right) push a swing carrying classmates Sabia (left) and Alisha Bano (right), in the play area of Chingari Rehabilitation Centre, Bhopal, India. All four are going through therapy to align their hearing and speech skills at the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre in Bhopal, India. Their disabilities were likely caused due to their parent’s exposure to MIC gas leak during the 1983 gas leak disaster An overhead water tank sits in New Arif Nagar, a neighborhood adjacent to the area where UCIL dumped toxic sludge prior to the MIC gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India. In recent years, the government began installing overhead water tanks to provide clean drinking water in the communities surrounding the UCIL facility where the groundwater is toxic. For decades, people in these communities have been consuming contaminated groundwater resulting in severe health issues and disabilities. Laxmi Sisodia walks past a graffiti filled wall of the abandoned former UCIL factory (now DOW Chemical) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. On the night of December 2, 1984, the factory owned by the U.S. multinational Union Carbide Corporation leaked MIC gas into the air, killing close to 8000 people and exposing over half a million people to the toxic gas, causing permanent disabilities to many. Although estimates on the toll vary, the accident continues to be considered the world’s worst industrial disaster Fetuses from pregnant women and infants killed during the 1984 MIC gas leak caused due to the health and safety negligence of Union Carbide (now DOW Chemical) lay preserved in formalin at Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, India. For three decades the Indian government has continued to show negligence towards scientific research that could help understand the unknown effects of MIC on the human body. Surrounded by overgrown trees, rusting reactors sit inside the abandoned UCIL factory in Bhopal, India. In 2001, US based corporation Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide, inheriting it’s assets as well as it's liabilities. Both Union Carbide and Dow Chemical have consistently declined to compensate the victims, remediate the site, and provide safe drinking water to the neighborhoods they contaminated. They have resisted the disclosure of the composition of the toxic release in the 1984 gas disaster, hindering the accurate diagnoses and treatment of those exposed.
