Bhopal protesters block trains

Thousands of survivors of the world’s worst industrial accident blocked trains through the central Indian city of Bhopal yesterday to demand more compensation for the 1984 disaster.

The protest came on the 27th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal, where a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked gas that killed some 15,000 people and maimed tens of thousands of others.

Activist Rachna Dhingra said that police charged the protesters with sticks to try to stop them from occupying Bhopal’s five train lines, and that three people were taken to hospital.

The protesters vowed to block the trains indefinitely. They have demanded that Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, pay €6.05 billion in compensation for more than 500,000 people exposed to the leak.

They say India’s government accepted far too little in a 1985 settlement for €349 million, after initially asking for €2.4 billion.

Meanwhile, Dow has maintained that the issue was resolved by the settlement.

Bhopal activists and survivors are also calling for Dow Chemicals to be dropped as a sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics, with some 200 protesters burning effigies of two Olympic officials last Friday.