For a study in government and corporate inertia and indifference amid massive human suffering, come to this stylish old central Indian city where, 25 years ago on a December 2 night, a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide factory led to the death of over 5,000 people and continuing ill health of over 500,000 in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
The site remains virtually as it was 25 years ago, with gaunt steel structures and dilapidated factory buildings still standing, as governments and pressure groups argue about what should be done to clean it up along with nearby chemical dumpsites. Court cases continue in India, the US and elsewhere, while Dow of the US, which has taken over Union Carbide, runs for cover.
The state government dreams of turning the site and decaying structures into a 70-acre Rs1.16bn ($23m) landscaped memorial "like Nagasaki or (New York's) Ground Zero", according to Babulal Gaur, an 80-year old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister who is responsible for relief and rehabilitation in the government of Madhya Pradesh, where Bhopal is the capital. The key structures (below) are the Sevin and MIC plants which blew that night.