Bhopal
City of Lakes governed by four female rulers (Begums, 1819-1926). The 1984 Union Carbide gas leak killed up to 25,000—the world's worst industrial disaster. Settled for $500 per victim. Toxic site still unremediated.
Shortly after midnight on 3 December 1984, forty tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal. The cloud rolled through the densely populated neighborhoods surrounding the factory—shantytowns where families slept on the ground, at the level where the gas was heaviest. Between 3,800 and 16,000 people died immediately or within days; over 500,000 were exposed. Estimates of total deaths, including long-term effects, range up to 25,000. The Bhopal disaster remains the world's worst industrial accident, and the site has never been fully remediated. Toxic chemicals still contaminate groundwater around the abandoned factory.
Bhopal was founded as a lakeside military outpost in the eleventh century, and the Nawabs of Bhopal—an unusually progressive Muslim dynasty that included four female rulers (Begums) between 1819 and 1926—shaped the city's character. The Begums built schools, infrastructure, and the Taj-ul-Masajid, one of Asia's largest mosques. Bhopal's two lakes (Upper Lake, dating to the eleventh century, and Lower Lake) define the city's geography and give it the nickname 'City of Lakes.' When India reorganized its states in 1956, Bhopal became the capital of Madhya Pradesh—India's largest state by area.
The Union Carbide factory was built in 1969 to produce Sevin pesticide for India's Green Revolution agricultural program. Safety standards were lower than at the company's identical plant in Institute, West Virginia. When the disaster struck, Union Carbide's CEO Warren Anderson was briefly arrested, released on bail, and never returned to India. The Indian government settled the case in 1989 for $470 million—approximately $500 per victim. Dow Chemical, which acquired Union Carbide in 2001, has consistently rejected liability.
Bhopal's population of 2.0 million makes it Madhya Pradesh's largest city. The economy has diversified into IT, education (several national institutes are headquartered here), and government services. But the disaster's legacy pervades: elevated rates of cancer, birth defects, and respiratory disease persist in affected communities. The abandoned factory, visible from major roads, stands as a monument to what happens when industrial expansion outpaces safety regulation and corporate accountability—the world's most visible case study in the gap between the benefits of industrialization and the distribution of its risks.